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Posted by admin in Zarb-e-Azb on October 9th, 2014
Pakistan Army is one of the non-political but yet most important state institution. Army has been working not only for the defence and security of the country, but is fighting at many other outskirts including flood, and Zarb-e-Azab in North Waziristan. Since Army has started Military operation in north Waziristan, 900 of the terrorists has been killed, many of the weapon factories have been destroyed. The operation was launched by military forces on 15 June, and now since three months army is engaged there. Along with Zarb-e-Azab, Pakistan Army is also under attack, as India violates cease fire at Line of Control, frequently, resulting in to Shahadat of our soldiers. Now as massive rains resulted into flood in many areas of Pakistan, and civilian government was failed to carry on relief activities, again Army was called to rescue people. Pakistani Army’s rescue and flood relief activities are continued all over the Pakistan, and one soldier also lost his life during a rescue operation. In all this scenario, when Army is busy at many borders, and they have many other things to look after there are few lobbies, including some of the Parliamentarians, and some of the social media activists, who have started baseless propaganda’s against Army.
As many of the parliamentarians, “elected” members of the honorable Assembly, blame Army in current political situation, that Army is the script writer of the public protests going on in Islamabad. Although, ISPR and Army officials have denied these allegations several times, and Army was not interfering, but COAS General Raheel Shareef was requested by Prime Minister Pakistan that Army should play their constitutional role resolving the current political crisis. COAS talked with the protesting parties, to help resolve the dead lock between the government and protestors. Later on, there were also baseless news of five top military generals who were just to step in, in current political situation to over throw civilian government. The news about Army’s intervention and linking it with ISPR’s statement to protect democracy and rumors that Army’s top level command want Prime Minister to resign are totally baseless.
Army has many other important issues, dragging a national institution, in such a mess is nothing but a cheap tactic to damage their reputation, but that will be useless. As this nation know, that Army has sacrificed lives of their men, their soldiers for this country. Army is one the respected and most fair institution of the state. Please, let them do their work, they have other important things like Zarb-e-Azab, Flood relief and defending the borders. Dragging them in politics is unacceptable. Everyone should must know that Pakistan Army is totally neutral, and Military is not behind current political crisis.
Long live Pakistan.
Long Live Pakistan Army.
Posted by admin in Pakistan-A Nation of Many Faiths on December 17th, 2013
MULTAN:
Multan’s historical monument, the 165-year-old Saint Mary’s Cathedral was renovated by the Pakistan Army in collaboration with the civil society of Multan.
The cathedral’s doors were thrown open to the public after massive renovation and repair work, which was inaugurated by Corps Commander Multan, Lieutenant General Abid Parvez.
The renovation cost more than five million rupees, which was contributed by the cantonment board Multan, civil society and from different sects.
Station Commander Brigadier Taufeeq Tahir said the cathedral was constructed in 1848, but had fallen into ruin and disrepair.
“We welcomed the renovation request of our honourable Christian community. It was not only renovated but completely rehabilitated, and members of all communities and sects are welcome here without any religious or social discrimination,” he said.
Bishop Leo Paul, who spoke on the behalf of the Christian community, paid special thanks to the Pakistan Army and civil society of multan. Addressing the ceremony, he discussed the problems of the church with Lieutenant General Abid Parvez and asked for a clean-up of encroachments and illegal buildings from the cathedral’s surroundings. He also requested for the construction of a school for the Christian community near the church.
Lieutenant General Abid Parvez appreciated the efforts of the Pakistan Army team. Addressing the ceremony, he said the army would like to continue working to protect Pakistan’s assets and historical monuments.
Saint Mary’s Cathedral – newly renovated. PHOTO: EXPRESS
No army in the world wants to engage in fratricidal counter-insurgency operations; pitching its firepower against its misdirected countrymen who for whatever misconceived motivations may choose to turn their guns on their compatriots and the armed forces.
Before the Twin Towers in the Manhattan district of New York came crashing down in the early morning hours on September 11, the prospects of Pakistan Army entering the Fata and taking on an insurgent threat were nowhere on the horizon.
Arrival of the elements of al-Qaeda and foreign protégées of the Taliban flushed out by the US onslaught in Afghanistan in Oct 2001, blew away this lackadaisical, time tested milieu.
The TTP with its Pakistan specific terrorist agenda took shape in the early 2000s and ever since the threat scenario has been incrementally getting vicious, radiating pain and bloodshed in the farthest reaches of Pakistan.
An area that once served as the buffer on Pakistan’s western flank is now terrorists’ hornet nest calling upon Pak Army to undertake a challenging and pain intensive counter insurgency campaign to defeat the liberty of action desired by terrorists who want to implement their detestable agenda in Pakistan and elsewhere.
At such junctures of national upheaval, the unequivocal national support is the sheet anchor that lends moral and emotional strength to the soldiers who serve their nation to the peril of their lives.
There is no room for confusion. The resolve that drives the soldiers is the just and clear articulation of the national cause that justifies the ultimate sacrifice. In this context the recent publication of an article “Pakistan Army and its War on Terror” by Musa Khan Jalazai comes across as an uninformed and distorted reflection of facts that tends to underrate the national achievements in the ongoing counter insurgency campaign and takes vicious swipes on the army as an institution. He is entitled to his warped opinions but by propagating his unfounded views on mainstream media, he is only imparting further impetus to the forces of obscurantism which want to engulf Pakistan.
The author has tried to mitigate the Pakistan Army’s sterling achievements in the counter insurgency campaign, which on all accounts are undeniable. Swat once deemed to have been hopelessly lost to forces of terrorism, is now back to normalcy and bustling with normal economic and routine activities associated with an at-peace civil society. This winter the trout from the Swat’s once demolished farms was back on sale in supermarkets and the luscious peaches from its verdant fruit orchards are abundantly available, underscoring the return to normalcy to this once terrorism-ravaged heaven on earth.
A similar success story is reflected in the South Waziristan Agency, where after annihilating the TTP’s strongholds in Kotkai, Srarogha, Kunigram, Makeen, Shrangrawari and Ladha, the army is busy in bringing about a radical change in the lives of the locals who are thronging back to pick up the threads of their interrupted lives by setting up communication infrastructure as well as economic projects, including vocational schools, to generate economic activity and wean away locals from the clutches of terrorists.
Notwithstanding Musa’s jaundiced assertions, the army’s success against militancy couldn’t have been possible until its doctrine, strategy and training were not fine-tuned to resonate in step with the changed threat perception whereby the internal security has risen to the top of priority list. Jalazai’s misperception that Pak Army is ill equipped and untrained for low intensity conflict only shows his detachment from the ground situation. It is insightful to read what Brian Cloughley has written on this aspect in his book, “A History of Pakistan Army”. “The (Pakistan) Army had to retrain almost from scratch to meet the new challenge and it has done remarkably well in completely altering the training priority and emphasis in such a short period,” he says.
Likewise his observation that the US priorities were compelling the Pak Army to take on the TTP is spurious. There are no grounds to suggest that Pakistan’s fight against forces of obscurantism, extremism and terrorism is not our national fight and through no strand of logic can be dubbed as an American war, as the writer wishes it to portray. This aspect was recently emphatically explained by the COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani who articulated that operations against an enemy that defied the Constitution of Pakistan and the democratic process and considered all forms of bloodshed justified, could not be considered someone else’s war but our own. Nowhere else is Musa Khan manifestly more out of his depth, than while making observations on the mindset of the rank of file in the army.
His preposterous reference to the non-existent sectarian and ethnic rifts being visible in the army is only a poor reflection of his ill intent and reeks of malicious bent towards the armed forces. Despite his self-contrived authority on military matters, it is obvious that he has probably never worn the Khakis nor had the honor to lead men or to be in combat situations. He has simply not fathomed the espirit de corps and ethos of the fighting men of the Pakistan Army which is such an effective melting pot of all sectarian and ethnic identities creating deepest of respect for the personal beliefs yet turning these into irrelevant side distractions in execution of the assigned mission. Once the bullets closely whiz by and shrapnel begin to fly, there is no time for reflecting on such obnoxious divisive thoughts. What matters is to fight effectively, prevail and let the other guy across the sights bite the dust.
The Pakistan Army’s fight against terrorism is a campaign in progress. The objectives of this campaign are clear; foreign fighters have to leave, terrorists of all ilks, including the TTP have to forsake terrorism and lay down arms and the writ of the state has to be established. On all accounts we have done well.
Swat and South Waziristan are two major success stories, yet the fight for the soul of Pakistan is far from over. The nation and its armed forces have given a sacrifice of 50,000 casualties and the people of Pakistan are solidly behind the Pak Army.
At such a juncture articles like one written by Musa Khan hardly make a sense. These only serve to create confusion and sow seeds of division and acrimony. Notwithstanding his outlandish assertions, as a soldier would know; no fault lines exist within the Pak Army and there are no prospects for one to emerge and enlarge.
The writer is a retired brigadier of Pakistan Army
Courtesy:
Posted by Brave_Heart in ANAY WALEY GHAZWA-I-HIND KAY JAANBAZ on June 29th, 2013
Waheed has pointed out the current state of Army Bashing so popular and in vogue with our politicians and the Parliament these days but has not included the effects of this bashing on the morale and psychological state of mind of all soldiers. Include in this the current glee our Anchors and politicians are having at Musharraf’s trial. It is not just for the hatred of Musharraf but it is also for humiliation of an Army Chief. What then is the remedy.? The Army leadership has to think hard and ensure that this great institution of which we are all rightly so proud and which has come to the rescue of the Nation in all calamities and against all dangers is not destroyed. Not by our known enemies but at the hands of those it has helped in coming to power through providing a favorable environment for democracy. Is this the revenge of democracy which the politicians talked about. Despair in the face of continuous attacks and unjustified blame game is a dangerous state.
The Military Bashing
By
Waheed Hamid
The Pakistan Army enjoys a unique position of love and trust which it has acquired from the people of Pakistan. The Army is looked upon as part of the solution to all problems, a panacea, an “AmritDhara” as most of its ranks from a soldier to a general belong to the class which has its roots in the public. Today we find a definite effort to make it look as part of all problems.
The international media then local media, a few politicians and now unfortunately government officials have joined the chorus. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan while talking to a private channel said, Gen. Ashfaque Pervez Kayani has kept himself away from politics but people like Gen. Pasha still exist in the army which need to be purged.
While speaking on Balochistan he criticized the law enforcers more than condemning the terrorist.
On the Karachi situation his comments again focused on the army and he did show his reservations on the public appealing to the Army Chief for peace in Karachi and called it an insult to the Parliament.
The virus of Army bashing has spread deep and wide. 150.000 officers and men have been fighting the enemies of state in Swat, Bajaur, South Waziristan and North Waziristan for the last so many years. Over 5000 soldiers have been martyred and 20.000 injured. How many word of sympathy from political leaders, government functionaries or media, not a single visit by President, the Commander-in-Chief, the Prime Minister, any other minister, senator or MNA, negligible condolence meetings. No good wishes or moral support for soldiers and officers or their bereaved families.
Army knows that it draws moral sustenance from civil society and other pillars. Despite all this army keeps receiving a wave of criticism even from local players which remains far from truth but it dares to remain silent.
The Army has to accept a partial blame of getting into such a position . Indifference of the Army has been palpable and conspicuous . It never took cognizance of the changing mode of the civil society and the government. It has never tried to educate the civil society or challenge the recalcitrant and tormentors, cultivate the media or access the establishment, politicians and other stake holders. The simplistic view of only guarding the frontiers and not watching the psychological aspect of warfare hitting the local is a negligence for which it is paying.
However it remains a question that who had to guard their soldiers against such propaganda and is it not asking too much from army to accord physical as well as psychological protection.
We find few a Pakistanis playing with the enemies to make us believe that the Army is a financial drag on national economy. It consumes largest chunk of budget at the cost of health, education, infrastructure and civic amenities for the public.
Dr Farrukh in his article “Military”holds the figure to prove that major portions are eaten by debt servicing, subsidy to public sector enterprises and Public Sector Development Programmes. He neglected to mention massive leakage through corruption, inefficiency and incompetence. The three services all together is consuming only 17 percent of all government expenditure, and only 2.5 percent of GDP brought down from 3.6 percent over a decade.
According to Dr Farrukh, more than fifty countries are spending greater Coalition Support Fund, while the fact is that Army has received less than two billion Dollars out of ten billion Dollars released by US Government.
Mubashar Luqman in his program proves India is Pakistan centric through the deployments of Indian army and yet few Pakistanis are made to criticize Army being India centric. The ratio of defence budget between India and Pak was 1-3 ratio but now this ratio has become 1-6. The reason is that budget was reduced to 18 percent and if we keep doing this under the misperception of the ones who keep working on personal business interests at cost of national interests will we not compromise on our defence.
A part of society , bureaucrats, politicians and so called intelligentsia grudge Army’s indulgence in commercial activities.
Facts are twisted, lies fed to the public that commercial enterprises of Army are subsidized by state, that Army is exempted from paying duties and taxes, that such indulgence adversely affects operational readiness.
Army has never tried to defend itself or educate the public. Defense Housing Authorities and Askari Housing Schemes are maligned to no limit. Housing authorities are blamed for acquiring State land at throw away prices. The land for these schemes are purchased from open market Housing Schemes provide decent living to retired officers and men. The management skills of these society with clean and fraud less environment tend to raise the prices of plots through open market system. Each army person pays for his plot and its development charges . Army Housing Schemes and Defense Housing Authorities are criticized, yet most dream of living in the areas, because of its clean ambiance, safety and security, civic amenities.
Few know that Army’s indulgence in commercial activities is motivated by the urge of providing welfare to retired-personnel who retire at an early age of 40-45 years. It does not affect preparedness for war. Officers and men on active duty are not posted to these concerns.
“Great nations know that value of a school teacher is more than a general in peace time and in war a Sepoy assumes priority over vice chancellor of university therefore they invest in both to uphold sovereignty and integrity of the nation”.
To our unfortunate luck we fail to condemn those who are destroying our schools and are ensuring a dark future of the coming generation.
However, we keep falling prey to foreign propaganda in criticizing the ones who are fighting and sacrificing their today for our tomorrow not realizing their job is different. To move towards the bullet when it leaves the enemy’s barrel.
Posted by ansarmukhtar in INDIA-AN EVIL NATION on June 21st, 2013
Pakistan Think Tank’s Thought Leaders Comment
Pakistan Army and ISI seem to be the bread and butter of Indian journalists and news-media.
One wonders what these Indian journos would write about had it not been for Pakistan Army and ISI ? On the contrary, there is hardly a word in Pakistani news-media about RAW and Indian Army…
With friends like Kabulis like Amrullah Saleh, we do not need enemies.
Pls note, this pathetic Karzai-excuse of a journo, Praveen Swami (see below), is trying to make it sound like Najibullah’s murder was any different from Moamer Gaddafii’s after the later’s US-funded capture and lynching at the hands of US-Allies, so-called “Libyan-Rebels”.
MAK
by Praveen Swami
Jun 20, 2013
Early in 2011, Hillary Clinton addressed iron words to Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership at a convention in New York, telling the men who enabled 9/11 exactly what they needed to do to bring “an end to the military actions that are targeting their leadership and decimating their ranks.” “They must renounce violence,” the former United States secretary of state said. “They must abandon their alliance with al-Qaeda; and they must abide by the constitution of Afghanistan.” Inside of days, the United States is scheduled to begin talks with Taliban envoys at their newly-inaugurated political office in Doha—an office flying the flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, destroyed by American bombs after 9/11.
Heading into 2014, when almost all western troops will pull out of Afghanistan, it’s turning out that America’s Red Lines on terror were drawn with vanishing ink. From 1 January to 6 June, civilian casualties are up 24 percent compared with the same period last year, three-quarters inflicted by the Taliban and its partners. The Taliban has refused to reject al-Qaeda. Its leaders refuse to sit across the table with representatives of Afghanistan’s elected government. New Delhi needs to start worrying, and soon: the Taliban’s march back into office will have lethal consequences not just for Afghans, but India and the region.
Late last year, Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, set up to negotiate peace with the Taliban, drew up a five-stage plan for peace talks. Formal negotiations with the Taliban, scheduled in the plan for mid-2013, are running bang on schedule—but only because key steps have been skipped. In return for its leadership being removed from the United Nations’ 9/11 sanctions list, for example, the Taliban was to announce it was “cutting its links with al-Qaeda.” Eighteen low-ranking Taliban released by Islamabad—a move meant to facilitate negotiations with the Afghan government—have remained on in Pakistan, without renouncing violence.
President Hamid Karzai, angered by the United States’ decision to talk to the Taliban regardless, has now called off negotiations on post-2014 security arrangements—but the truth is he has little power to shape events. There’s a simple reason why the United States has continued to push for talks: President Barack Obama is desperate for any political deal that will dignify his 2014 retreat: peace, as it were, at any cost.
Key Taliban leaders like Mullah Muhammad Umar, Abdul Ghani Baradar, Abdul Ahad Jehangirwal and Nooruddin Turabi remain in Pakistan—and under the effective control of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. The families of key Doha negotiators, including Taliban chief of mission Tayyab Agha, are also in Pakistan. The Taliban’s office in Doha is as much a Pakistani intelligence station as an Afghan political mission. Aga Jan Motasim—a former Taliban leader targeted for assassination in 2010 because of his participation in secret peace talks—recently made clear the Doha leadership was not among Taliban moderates willing to accept electoral democracy.
Islamabad has cashed in on Obama’s desperation, selling its leverage over the Taliban hardliners in return for equities in Afghanistan’s political future. It argues that the Taliban leadership, if given power in Kabul, will be able to buy off ground-level jihadists fighting alongside al-Qaeda and its sister organisations. The Taliban leadership, it hopes, will return the favour by using its influence with jihadists fighting against the Pakistani state, like al-Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Few experts believe things will work to the script Pakistan is marketing: key Taliban affiliates like Jalaluddin Haqqani’s networks are deeply entwined with al-Qaeda and the TTP, the scholars Dan Rassler and Vahid Brown have shown. President Obama, though, seems desperate enough to try.
Early on 27 September 1996, Muhammad Najibullah Ahmadzai was dragged out of the United Nations compound in Kabul, where he had taken sanctuary. The former Afghan president was beaten, then castrated; his bloodied body was dragged behind a truck before being hung on a traffic light for public display. President Najibullah’s last minutes were the first of the life of Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirate. His fate tells us why President Obama’s initiative is doomed to fail.
From 1994, the United States threw its weight behind oil giant Unocal’s efforts to build a pipeline linking central Asia’s vast energy fields with the Indian Ocean. In April 1996, Robin Raphel—then assistant secretary of state for south Asia, and now President Barack Obama’s ambassador for non-military aid to Pakistan—visited Kabul to lobby for the project. Later that year, she was again in Kabul, calling on the international community to “engage the Taliban.”
Mullah Muhammad Ghaus, the Islamic Emirate’s then-foreign minister, led an expenses-paid delegation to Unocal’s headquarters in Sugarland, Texas. The clerics, housed at a five-star hotel, were taken to see the NASA museum, several supermarkets and—improbably—the local zoo. Glyn Davies, the State Department’s spokesperson, described Najibullah’s killing as “regrettable”. Yet, he said, the United States hoped the new Islamic Emirate would “form a representative interim government that can begin the process of reconciliation nationwide”.
Raphael had these words in response: “The Taliban do not seek to export Islam, only to liberate Afghanistan.”
The United States responded with silence—both to the Taliban’s crimes against its own people, and its role in Osama bin Laden’s violent rise. Even though the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan sheltered bin Laden, it was never declared a state sponsor of terrorism. In 1996, a State Department report had described bin Laden as one of the “most significant sponsors of terrorism today”. “Madeline Albright, [her] undersecretary Tom Pickering and regional specialists in state’s south Asia bureau,” records Steve Coll in his magisterial work Ghost Wars, “all recommended that the administration continue its policy of diplomatic engagement with the Taliban. They would use pressure and promises of future aid to persuade [Mullah Muhammad] Omar to break with bin Laden.”
“The truth,” Albright would later argue, “was that those [attacks before 9/11] were happening overseas and while there were Americans who died, there were not thousands and it did not happen on US soil.” Libya, Iraq, South Yemen, and Syria, all secular states, hadn’t killed “thousands” or “on US soil”—but that didn’t stop the United States from designating them sponsors of terrorism. The truth was also that the United States saw Sunni jihadists in Afghanistan, along with nuclear-armed Pakistan, as allies against a resurgent Iran.
Ever since 26/11, Pakistan has reined in jihadist groups operating against India, fearful of military retaliation and international sanctions. Now, though, as the ISI seeks to deflect jihadist energies away from Pakistan, India is again becoming a target. Threats from al-Qaeda have multiplied: in a recent video, al-Qaeda cleric Asim Umar called on Indians Muslims to battle for shari’a rule; last year, al- Qaeda’s Ahmad Farooq vowed “to hasten our advance towards Delhi.”
Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed recently condemned suicide bombings in Pakistan—but appeared to suggest they’d be legitimate elsewhere. Doha-based Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi—a key influence on the Taliban, and behind the scenes player in the talks—has hailed the jihadist struggle to create an Islamic state in Kashmir. For all practical purposes, the talks in Doha will hand Pakistan and its jihadist proxies the keys to Afghanistan’s future—a decision that could impose enormous costs on India.
New Delhi will have to resume serious dialogue on military assistance with the Northern Alliance, which battled the Taliban until 9/11. It will have to think seriously on the use of offensive covert means to target the jihadist leadership in Pakistan. New Delhi will also have stop dragging its feet on requests for military assistance from Afghanistan, made by Karzai last month. “I think the time has come for India to revitalise its relationship with its historic friends, who resisted Pakistani expansionism in Afghanistan before 9/11,” former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told Firstpost. “The moment of decision is inching closer.”
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