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Posted by admin in Ishaal Zehra, OPINION LEADER on February 7th, 2018
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his Davos debut at this year’s World Economic Forum’s (WEF) opening session. Speaking in Hindi, he touted the ease of doing business in India to world leaders and global CEOs, also calling for countries to unite to tackle what he called the three big challenges that the world faces – “climate change, terrorism and a rising threat to globalization with powers of protectionism”.
“Come to India,” said Modi, “If you want wellness along with wealth, wholeness along with health and peace with prosperity.” In India, he said, “democracy, demography and dynamism” are shaping development and growth that is inclusive.
But all the ostentatious speech impelled by huge words and even bigger promises went vain. To his dismay, hours before Modi’s Davos spiel, WEF published its Inclusive Development Index-2018 findings which actually rated India far below her neighbours Pakistan and China.
The Inclusive Development Index (IDI) is an annual assessment of 103 countries’ economic performance that measured how countries performed on eleven dimensions of economic progress in addition to the GDP. India was accordingly ranked at the 62nd place among emerging economies, much below China’s 26th position and Pakistan’s 47th.
The IDI is a project of the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Economic Progress. It aims to inform and enable sustained and inclusive economic progress through deepened public-private cooperation, thought leadership and analysis, strategic dialogue and concrete cooperation. In simpler terms, it actually indicates whether growth is actually leading to broader equality and improved quality of life for households.
Indian media claims that Modi had quite a packed visit, presenting investment opportunities to every tom, dick and harry he happened to meet. Though Modi elaborated well his speech or what may be called a success story, typically one used by a salesperson, the data given by the WEF proves the economic conditions in India otherwise.
As if the IDI report wasn’t enough to hamper the investors ‘would be’ temptations after hearing what heaven India will prove to them, a periodic report by Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the WEF ranked India among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2018, stooping down 36 places from 141 in 2016. While India is at the bottom of the list in the environmental health category, it ranks 178 out of 180 as far as air quality is concerned. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation says that India’s low scores are influenced by poor performance in her Environmental Health policy objectives. Deaths attributed to PM2.5, a dangerous particulate in the air, have risen over the past decade and are estimated at 1.6 million annually. These PM2.5 particles are known to produce severe respiratory and cardiovascular illness.
Further, the annual Oxfam survey revealed that 67 crore Indians, comprising the population’s poorest half, saw their wealth rise by just 1% in 2017. As stated in a new survey report ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ by international rights group Oxfam, India’s richest 1% garnered as much as 73% of the total wealth generated in the country in 2017. CEO of Oxfam India, Nisha Agrawal believed that it is rather alarming that the benefits of economic growth in India continue to concentrate in fewer hands. “The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system… The growing divide undermines democracy and promotes corruption and cronyism”, she said.
The report’s findings are in line with those of similar studies including the one published by renowned economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty last July. These reports actually give credence to the theory that the rich have disproportionately benefited from liberalization while others have been left struggling, observes The Wire, an Indian web publication.
Some argue that this brandishing by Modi at the WEF was deemed necessary both, to portray India as a growing and promising economy to the world as well as to lift his own moral as the circumstances at home are definitely not backing him. Though like all Indian leaders before him, he spoke of his country’s diversity – of how democracy was its strength, of how it sought consensus and unity in politics at home and abroad – in reality, the Modi government has consistently fallen short of these goals which he bragged about at the Davos.
All the success stories and brags about being the business heaven is spurious and fabricated. Prime Minister Modi is faking it out and loud. Just like his popularity in the social media. Bloomberg, the US media company, did an investigative piece on how the Facebook’s political unit is enabling the dark art of digital propaganda. It claims that the company helped develop the online presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now has more Facebook followers than any other world leader. India is arguably Facebook’s most important market, with the nation recently edging out the US as the company’s biggest. The number of users there is growing twice as fast as in the US, it further states.
The authors observed that India has become a hotbed for fake news, with one hoax story last year that circulated on WhatsApp lead to two separate mob beatings resulting in seven deaths. The nation has also become an increasingly dangerous place for opposition parties and reporters. In the past year alone, several journalists critical of the ruling party have been killed. Hindu extremists who back Modi’s party have used social media to issue death threats against Muslims or critics of the government, they wrote.
Interestingly, hoax news is used by Prime Minister Modi and his board of advisories to come up with any plan they want to. It actually gives them room to generate a raw public appeal. This appeal really works at the times when his aura gets weak and he needs a good public support. Likewise, some bad incident is always blamed at Pakistan to arouse public feelings at home and then some sort of drama is orchestrated to make them believe that PM Modi is the only “Macho Man” who can teach Pakistan a lesson and withstand China’s bullies effectively. May it be the spurious claims that India’s Special Forces had conducted some surgical strikes across the Line of Control, inside Pakistan to avenge the URI attacks (which again was fabricated a while ago) or the swaggering of Doklam standoff with China.
Modi’s popularity has declined and needs a boost before the next general elections in India. The damage done is far too serious that a plan was hatched to overdose the public with an orchestrated media campaign to arouse their patriotic spirits. The latest in the sequence was the book launch by Nitin Gokhale, who happened to be a confidant of Ajit Doval – Modi’s NSA. The book called, “Securing India- The Modi way” tried hard to sensationalize the supposed surgical strikes through fiction by code-naming the activity as “Op X”. The writer claimed so many weird things about this hypothetical operation which actually never happened thus was not verified by any independent source. The book also touches Doklam episode, so-called revamping of New Delhi’s policy towards China and Pakistan, India’s renewed global policy focus on the Middle East and Modi’s focus on Indian diaspora worldwide. In a nutshell, the book is an engineered attempt on the part of Ajit Doval through Nitin Gokhale’s flatterer pen to lionize Mr Modi as a “brand India product” for upcoming elections.
The media campaign was further extended with the release of a documentary on these imaginary surgical strikes. Interestingly, Modi and his aides are thriving their success story on something so lame which even their own countrymen and colleagues never validated, leave Pakistan and international community aside. So much so that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and other politicians and actors were dubbed “anti-national” for raising valid demands of incriminating evidence of such strikes.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Modi may have been so far able to goof up his own people with such gimmicks and foul plays but the international community is not gullible Indians, a majority of whom are living below the poverty line and are probably not educated enough to distinguish dark from sunny. All the recent reports are vocal of Modi’s misleading promises and tall claims about how India has been converted into a haven for foreign investors and businessmen. May it is the recent report by Human Rights Watch or the WEF findings, all are sceptical to Modi’s gigantic claims. So far, he has been successful with his media campaign at home, but it’s time to see if he can manage to fool the world with his fallacious aura.
Posted by admin in Asif Haroon Raja (Retd):Pakistan Army, Brig (Retd).Asif Haroon Raja's Column, India Exported Terrorism in Pakistan, Kulbhusgan Jadav-Indian RAW Terror Mastermind, OPINION LEADER on February 7th, 2018
Defence Analyst
After the false flag operation in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, India blamed Pakistan, ISI and Hafiz Saeed led Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks (1), and suspended composite dialogue with Pakistan that had been renewed in February 2004 as a consequence to Indo-Pakistan peace treaty and a commitment to resolve all disputes including Kashmir issue through talks. Since then, India pushed aside Kashmir dispute and made terrorism as the core issue. Without providing any proof, it forced Pakistan to arrest and punish the alleged culprits involved in Mumbai attacks. In fact, India cleverly built a narrative of terrorism against Pakistan from the time of engineered terror attack on December 13, 2001, in which the Indian Parliament in New Delhi was attacked by a handful of terrorists(1). After blaming Pakistan and Jaish-e- Muhammad, India deployed its entire military strength along its western border and remained in confrontation mode for next ten months.
Thereon, all terror attacks in India were put in the basket of Pakistan. The purpose of building this narrative was to get Pakistan declared a terrorist state and ISI a rogue outfit. Its strategic partners USA and Afghanistan substantiated Indian stance. Indian attitude became more aggressive after Narendra Modi took over power in June 2014. From August 2014 onward, the Indian military has kept the Line of Control and working boundary in Kashmir sector hot and hardly a day has passed without unprovoked firing by India. The upsurge in the uprising in IOK after the martyrdom of Burhan Wani in July 2016 was also placed at the doorsteps of Pakistan. Pakistan was blamed for the militants’ attacks in Udhampur and Pathankot airbase. The militant attack on Uri military camp in April 2016(1a) further incensed India and it started hurling threats of surgical strikes and limited war. Intruding Indian drone was shot down by Pakistan Army, while Indian submarine on a spying mission was forced to retreat by Pak Navy.
Besides political, diplomatic and military posturing to overawe and isolate Pakistan, India has also been trying to ease out Pakistan from its membership of SAARC. The 19th SAARC summit scheduled at Islamabad in November 2016 had to be cancelled due to India refusing to attend it and Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan the following suit to boycott the summit. (2)
After sabotaging the Summit, India also tried to halt the appointment of the New Secretary-General, Amjad Hussian B Sial. India justified its actions by stating that the nominee had to be ratified by the Council of Ministers conference in Islamabad. Something which could not take place due to the postponement of the Summit. (3)
Soon after the appointment of the New Secretary-General in March 2017, India hosted a meeting on March 21, 2017, of security chiefs from the seven member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) The meeting was a first for the BIMSTEC group, which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.(4) This meeting focused on terrorism, cyber and maritime security challenges facing the region. It was decided at the meeting to establish a track 1.5 dialogue forum focused on security. Given the importance of cooperating on security-related matters, it was also decided to hold such meetings annually. It was no surprise that Pakistan was again left out of this meeting. (5)
Another meeting was held in the month of October 2017 in which India again tried to push back SAARC and attempted to boost the significance of BIMSTEC. In his remarks during the meeting, Foreign Secretary of India S. [sgmb id=”2″](6) In an implicit reference to Pakistan, he also said that “as one country” is not, and since the other seven-nation regional grouping BIMSTEC has members that are “broadly aligned” and “articulate similar aspirations”, and are connected to the other members of the South Asian regional bloc on the key issue of terrorism, it was unlikely that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could be revived.(7)
India has also tried to marginalize Pakistan on other forums as well. For instance, when Sushma Swaraj met SAARC foreign ministers in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in September 2017, India’s disinterest in the summit was evident. This added to the downgrading of the entire organization. With India-Pakistan bilateral relations on the downturn, the domino impact on the South Asian body has only worsened. (8)
During her speech, Swaraj did not refer to the uncertainties surrounding the SAARC Summit but stressed the primacy given to the removal of terrorism which in implicit terms was actually taking a jab at Islamabad: “Regional prosperity, connectivity and cooperation can take place only in an atmosphere of peace and security.(9) It, however, remains at serious risk in the region. It is necessary for our region’s survival that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support.”(10)
On January 2, 2018, India excluded Pakistan from the list of SAARC member countries with which it will be connecting its state-of-the-art National Knowledge Network (NKN) for sharing scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.(11)
NKN will extend global research and education networks to six SAARC member states — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Pakistan is the only SAARC nation that has been left out of this initiative. (12)
NKN is a multi-gigabit pan-India network which facilitates the development of India’s communications infrastructure, stimulates research and creates next-generation applications and services. (13) This new initiative will enable collaboration among researchers from different educational networks such as TEIN4, GARUDA, CERN and Internet2. It also enables sharing of scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.(14)
NKN will be connected from Afghanistan to Delhi or Mumbai, from Bangladesh to Kolkata or Delhi, from Bhutan to Kolkata or Delhi, from Nepal to Kolkata or Delhi, from the Maldives to Chennai or Mumbai and from Sri Lanka to Chennai or Mumbai. (15) A state-of-the-art management centre and network operations centre will also be set up to run the NKN network. The connection from Afghanistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka to India would be through a submarine cable for international connectivity. (16)
It is evident that it is not Pakistan that is creating hurdles in the way of successful implementation of SAARC’s agenda, but in fact, it is India which is trying to isolate Pakistan by using underhand tactics. India has used terrorism as a basis for suspension of official talks with Pakistan due to alleged terrorist attacks launched by groups from across the border. The chill in relations has spread out to other sectors such as research and scientific development as well – something, which negatively affects the entire region.
On the question of terrorism, it is again very clear that it is not Pakistan which is sponsoring terrorism. On the contrary, it is India funding radicalization in South Asia – especially in Pakistan. Kulbhushan Jadhav is a prime example of this.
India should also realize that it is not the only country in SAARC that can dominate all the other members. Instead, Delhi should remember the agenda of regional cooperation on which SAARC was formed and countries should use this forum for regional cooperation, not for a rivalry. SAARC should not be the organization to prolong the rivalry among regional states, rather it should serve for greater regional cooperation and economic integration. If the region is thrown into negativity, India will suffer along with the others as well. This is something Delhi needs to keep in mind. After all, what goes around comes around. India must also not forget that CPEC has taken off and sooner than later, SAARC members will gravitate toward this profit making project and leave India which is opposed to CPEC in a lurch.
(1a) “Uri Attack: India, Pakistan’s Kashmir Dispute Flares Again.” Time. Accessed January 25, 2018. http://time.com/4498891/kashmir-uri-attack-india-pakistan-military-conflict/
(2) Baqir Sajjad Syed | Jawed Naqvi. “SAARC summit in doldrums after India pulls out.” DAWN.COM September 28, 2016. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://www.dawn.com/news/1286609
(3) Kathmandu Anil Giri Hindustan. “Appointment of SAARC secretary general hit by India-Pakistan tensions.” Times. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/appointment-of-SAARC-secretary-general-hit-by-india-pakistan-tensions/story-1b1wlC1CrEbquDvQRuQZkN.html
(4) Gurjar, Sankalp. “Is SAARC Doomed?” The Diplomat. April 01, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://thediplomat.com/2017/04/is-SAARC-doomed/
(5) Ibid.
(6) Bagchi, Indrani. “Question mark over SAARC summit again” The Times of India. September 23, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/question-mark-over-SAARC-summit-again/articleshow/60801709.cms
(7) Ibid.
(8) Bagchi, Indrani. “Question mark over SAARC summit again .” The Times of India. September 23, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/question-mark-over-SAARC-summit-again/articleshow/60801709.cms
(9) Ibid.
(10) Ibid.
(11) “India excludes Pakistan from SAARC initiative.” Pakistan Today. Accessed January 25, 2018.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/01/03/india-excludes-pakistan-from-SAARC-initiative/
(12) “India excludes Pakistan from a SAARC initiative.” The Economic Times. January 03, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-excludes-pakistan-from-a-SAARC-initiative/articleshow/62345991.cms
(13) Ibid.
(14) Ibid.
(15) “India excludes Pakistan from SAARC initiative”, Pakistan Today. Accessed January 25, 2018.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/01/03/india-excludes-pakistan-from-SAARC-initiative/
(16) “Modi Government excludes Pakistan from the list of SAARC nations for its State-of-the-Art National Knowledge Network Initiative.” Postcard. January 09, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2018. http://postcard.news/modi-government-excludes-pakistan-list-SAARC-nations-state-art-national-knowledge-network-initiative/
Posted by Fannie in Dr Kausar Talat, OPINION LEADER on January 8th, 2018
Opinion Leader,
Pakistan Think Tank
A perfect storm is brewing in Pakistan since last 10 years involving political leaders, ruling parties along with many opposition leaders and businessmen. However, coming days in the first quarter of 2018 may see an intensity of this perfect storm when the 5th generation warfare imposed on Pakistan by US-led India and Afghanistan insurgencies helped by Israeli Mossad and British MI-5 could have a final assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s economic woes are increasing against the backdrop of political instability, the absence of foreign policy and fumbling on National Action Plan against terrorism are perfectly programmed for social disruption and distraction creating an opportunity for the outside adversarial forces active in the region to take advantage. Add in next year’s elections, and Pakistan could find itself in the midst of one of the most contentious periods since its independence.
Over two thousand years ago, the great Chinese military strategist Sun-Tzu (1993) wrote the following:
“It is best to keep one’s own army, battalion, company, or five-man squad intact;
to crush the enemy’s army, battalion, company, or five-man squad is only a second best.
So, to win a hundred victories in hundred battles is not the highest excellence; the highest excellence is to subdue the enemy’s army without fighting at all” (Sun-Tzu, 1993, p. 111).
This is exactly the objective of the modern-day – 5th generation war where land is not overrun, nor military boots occupy the ground but the institutions and economy are weakened systematically. Forces hostile to Pakistan are operating without restraint in the region as well as within Pakistan. Deliberate negligence in foreign policy, massive corruption on the economic front and indifference to the problems of the common man has reduced faith in the system and weakened the center. It all started with the passing of the 18th amendment to the constitution, apparently giving freedom to provinces. This amendment has shaken the center to the point where federal government’s decisions are being challenged and delayed. A classic example is the National Action Plan against terrorism. Political expediencies, corruption and probably support from the outside forces interested in containing China made the National Action Plan inactive. Fortunately acting on the orders of Judiciary Pakistan Armed Forces were able to control the serious situation of law and order in Karachi and Baluchistan. Further, an arrest of serving commander of Indian Navy unlocked connections of many political leaders backdoor relationship with India and Afghanistan and numerous sleeper cells in the country. Kul Bashan Jadhav, the terrorist acknowledges his work to sabotage CPEC, spread harassment and terrorize civilians as his objective and was in direct contact with his handler, Anil Kumar Dashmana who is heading Indian intelligence agency at present. Indian investment in Nawaz Sharif is so intense that on the disclosure of an arrest by ISI of terrorist Kul Bashan, Nawaz Sharif and his government has remained silent till today. It has now been revealed that Nawaz Sharif was in contact with Anil Kumar – RAW under the disguise of backdoor diplomacy. While all this was happening, official propaganda was on full throttle about the economy and progress.
Edward Bernays —- cousin of Sigmund Freud in his book Propaganda (1928), states that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind. The conscious and intelligent manipulation of, history, facts, habits and opinions of the masses are important elements in controlling any society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government that becomes the dominant power in shaping policies of a nation… Today in Pakistan efforts are being made to mold our minds and values transformed, our vision getting blurred, our ideology hijacked by this invisible enemy with the support of local media such as GEO and the JANG group along with English media led by DAWN and The News plus NGOs and the so-called civil society of Pakistan in the name of democracy and gender rights. While all this is happening, rulers are trying to ditch the two-nation ideology, the basis of Pakistan’s existence. Please see by clicking:
Pakistani nation at large is at a loss – confused resigned to nonstop decadence in society, degradation of institutions, the onslaught on traditions and values, the national ideology, the spread of immorality under the cover of gender equality. Print media is busy with their liberal agenda discussing women hygiene, women empowerment and rape test (see Dawn, The News, etc. week of Dec. 18, 2017) as if all is well with an utter disregard of national security and regional affairs. So-called leaders, instead of leading are busy defending themselves in courts and trying to secure their looted wealth while media is creating sensation through its talk shows and breaking news, corrupting and debasing national language through talk shows on behalf of Indian and Emirati business partners – welcome to the 5th generation of cyber war’s final assault upon the sovereignty of Pakistan.
The stage is set, gunpowder is in place, mines are planted literally for the final assault on the sovereignty of the nuclear power, the second largest Muslim State of Pakistan and to impair the world’s best military. YES, during coming months – probably in the first quarter of 2018, Pakistan could confront an escalation of civic disruption through communal terrorism, planted fake news to spread harassment and despair among the general public. The economic recession combined with hopelessness nation can fall into the slump at a time when Pakistan’s military establishment needed the public support and vigilance the most. There may be a possibility of a ‘Black Swan’ event such as high terrorism, or an assassination of an important person that could plunge the nation into downheartedness. At this point, the nation loses faith and the will to resist the negative changes being imposed resigning to their fate. In another scenario, India may open up the battle-front in Kashmir or at Lahore border while Afghanistan squeezes Pakistan’s defence capability in the North West of Pakistan with Iran closing its borders and the US attacking via drones. These are possible scenarios and Pakistani intelligence is well aware of it. Deliberate inactive foreign policy, misconstrued, misjudged and corrupt economic decisions for years, along with incompetent ambassadors and hyped up anti-state media is ready to play its role in an effort to capitulate Pakistan as a sovereign nation – all this in collaboration with the enemy to deny Pakistan of its nuclear arsenal and to damage the Pakistan military, demoralized its rank and file, strip off its confidence so that Pakistan cannot resist the ultimate ‘great game’ of imposing US-led Indian hegemony in the region.
Will the above scenario succeed? Maybe, because of the foreign investment made by the enemy on our almost every political leader, specifically the ruling government. In collaboration with its foreign backers, Pakistani political leaders have been laying the ground-work through legislation, judicial changes, planting their cronies to the lowest level of bureaucracy to weaken the center who comes into play in case of resistance. I strongly believe that YES, the situation would take Pakistan to the brink BUT Pakistan Army and its intelligence along with active judiciary, which we have seen in 2nd half of 2017 would put up a good fight to defend Pakistan’s ideology, its values and its sovereignty. Why do I think this way?
Because:
Today once again Pakistan finds itself at the epicentre not only by virtue of geography but also because of its history, religion, culture and ethnicity. Present and future conflicts in the Middle East are proving to be a tinderbox, and Pakistan finds itself to be a pivot, as the catalyst of conflict or perhaps a mediating influence. As a nuclear power, its geographic location, and Islamic identity project strong desire to assert itself on behalf of ummah at the global stage. The critical role of Pakistan as a factor in international stability and global politics shall become apparent by the end of 2018 soon after purging its corrupt rulers and finding its rightful place on the global stage in the context of Islamic identity.
___________________________________________
Posted by Fannie in Col.Riaz Jafri (Retd), OPINION, OPINION LEADER on January 8th, 2018
Col.Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
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Posted by Brave_Heart in OPINION LEADER, Sarosh Yakoob on December 30th, 2017
“There is one unalterable difference between a soldier and a civilian, the civilian never does more than he is paid to do.” Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Pakistan was given to us by Jinnah, look what we have done with it.
It is imperative for all nations of the world to seek consciousness which transcends patriotic egos. It is elemental to realise unity in a diversified way. It is about establishing a logical approach and fosters a shared consciousness in order to pinpoint the dormant indifference prevailing in the society so that it does not turn volatile.
The nature of inept institutions always breeds mistrust. The government is so driven by power and profit that it only brings chaos in the end. No set rules to follow, which result in violence and ire in society. While we realise that the red light blinks on the socio-economic indicators, it is already too late.
The system is collapsing itself, as the political elite is self-destructive, why should the military dirty their hands at this point in time, when CPEC is the biggest milestone achieved and the global Game-Changer.
Since Pakistan was created, we have seen the political elite locking horns with the military, have we ever thought that our backbone is a part of our body and we could not exist without it. It is the proof of our existence.
Take a small example of the Dawn Leaks, when the whole nation was shaken at the abrupt and unexpected decision. I am no exception; I was irritated too as to why did our army take a step back? One thing was sure that our Men of Steel did not sell out. What was the issue that made them retreat?
“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” – Douglas MacArthur
In the larger interest of the country, our armed forces do us proud as they took the blow of being ridiculed and the guts of the DG ISPR Asif Ghafoor deserve immense appreciation for holding a press conference, as they say, the show must go on. This requires immense courage.
Army always displays wisdom whereas the holders of the beacons of democracy display emotions. Nations are built on wisdom and not emotions.
The Fallacy of the Civil-Military divide is crystal-clear. With due apologies, our government is involved in corruption, nepotism and greed. Still, the COAS kept his calm, for what? Did he recede?
“Winning the men’s confidence requires much of a commander. He must exercise care and caution, look after his men, live under the same hardships, and above all-apply self-discipline. But once he has their confidence, his men will follow him through Hell and high water.” – Erwin Rommel
The system is collapsing itself, as the political elite is self-destructive, why should the military dirty their hands at this point in time, when CPEC is the biggest milestone achieved and the global Game-Changer. Army always displays wisdom whereas the holders of the beacons of democracy display emotions. Nations are built on wisdom and not emotions. Looking at this from a different perspective, all kinds of media went berserk and lashed out vehemently. Our Media, which is owned by conglomerates, business tycoons and land mafias became intensely active.
Pakistan is on an uphill, going fast-track for the best future and right beside; we see a slide where politicians are sliding down. The Fallacy is basically not because we are not one united nation. It is because our political elite is controlled by foreign powers which have different agendas like sectarianism, loot, plunder and to sell national assets for their own interest.
We have enemies looming all around, only the resilience of our Armed Forces stand tall, taking all the blows in silence and working all the way to secure Jinnah’s Pakistan. The need of the hour is to realise and feel proud where Pakistan stands, concentrating on an individual identity, as an ensemble of being human.
So many ways, so many words to say, yet my tongue is tied, not that I will face criticism but I want the people of Pakistan to understand this Fallacy of the civil-military divide which is overblown, bloated and out of shape. There are a number of ways to express this metaphor without creating any ripples.
Let us bring a positive change to our lives, let us learn to trust our institution, and let us learn to unite… but wait a second. Is the political elite ready for this? No—when vested interests are more than being a Pakistani, things turn ugly. This paradigm shift leads to great differences in our societies for the prevalence of violence and terrorism. Yet terrorism remains to be another challenge, and extremist tendencies remain another.
We have to give a wake-up call to the nation with a holistic approach; we have to secure our boundaries and borders. We have enemies looming all around, only the resilience of our Armed Forces stand tall, taking all the blows in silence and working all the way to secure Jinnah’s Pakistan. The need of the hour is to realise and feel proud where Pakistan stands, concentrating on an individual identity, as an ensemble of being human.
Pakistan was given to us by Jinnah, now we know what to do with it.
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