Confusion
and dust in Karachi after deadly ambush on Army Corps Commander
on June 10
Role of
Pakistan Army Under Musharraf Just Stinks
By
Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON:
General Pervez Musharraf is getting the taste of his own medicine.
After the Thursday morning Karachi Clifton ambush on his Corps
Commander, it is now clear that senior Army officers cannot come
out in the public, unless protected by the State. Musharraf himself
is a prisoner of his own past, and future.
After
criminalizing, fractionalizing and brutalizing the society for
his own personal power for five years, Musharraf and his top collaborators
have ensured that half of his senior Army leadership, Major Generals
and above, will now be public targets. Fair game. And unknown,
unnamed and always elusive ‘terrorists’ will be there
to blame.
With
the attacks on the Army now becoming menacing by the day, Musharraf
himself included, it is just a matter of time that any one, just
about any one, wearing a military uniform will be attacked, if
for nothing, just for the heck of it.
This
situation is becoming perilously similar to the weeks and months
shortly after the fall of Dacca in 1971 when no Army officer was
comfortable coming out of his home in the khaki. The uniform had
become an embarrassment and officers would not disclose their
rank when asked to introduce themselves.
A
quick look at the last five years will tell us to what degrading
level General Musharraf has brought his institution. Just recall
from where he started in October 1999 when many of us genuinely
expressed happiness, publicly, and the silent majority concurred,
silently, giving Musharraf a free hand to set things right, for
the nation and the country.
What
he set out to do was soon lost under the sheer weight of the uphill
task and his sheer incompetence, nay incapacity and failure, to
deliver even part of that agenda. Officers and colleagues of Musharraf
had grossly over-rated the man. He was no visionary and no Kamal
Ataturk, as he very proudly wanted to be. He was an insecure officer,
thrown up by his faithful friends. Basically he was a tin pot
dictator who was soon to fall into the trappings of palace intrigues
to keep him in power at any cost: political, moral, social, religious,
national, disintegration. Whatever.
Stories
of how Musharraf moved from a popular leader among his Army colleagues,
who gave him the top job in a plate when he was not even in the
country, to a vengeful commander who would eliminate any one showing
a modicum of dissent, are now making the rounds. He himself has
admitted that lower ranks were involved in assassination attempts
on his life. Many officers are still missing and their families
are scared and living in horror.
Latest
reports reveal the next round of promotions to crucial Corps Commander
slots that are planned are all close relatives of Musharraf, and
his wife. Stark nepotism is being practiced in the Army and because
he is wearing the all important caps of the Army Chief and President
of Pakistan, no aggrieved colleague or commander can dare raise
a voice.
The
failure of the Army in its own professional operations has been
phenomenal. U-Turns on strategic policies left officers and ranks
confused. If India was not an enemy, who was? If Dr AQ Khan was
a national hero, why had he been arrested and humiliated before
the world? If Kashmir was not to be resolved by UN, who was surrendering?
If fellow mujahideen of decades were terrorists, what about their
trainers and tutors? If Taliban were Satanic, why were we parenting
them?
Wana,
in particular, has left indelible black spots on the competence
and ability of Musharraf to meet the challenge of some crudely
trained tribal warriors. The strategy and execution of military
operations in the Tribal Areas have proved disastrous. One day
they are hunting a terrorist, next day the top Army commander
is garlanding the same 'terrorist' as a hero on TV screens worldwide
and the third day he is again declared a terrorist. What kind
of egg has that left on the face of the Army?
Stories
of land grabbing, job grabbing, high handedness, insulting the
'bloody civilians', beating up conscientious police cops, political
manipulations, arms twisting, black mailing, election frauds,
government scams have repeatedly made the top Army brass and middle
ranks uneasy, very uneasy. The feeling of helplessness is deep
rooted.
Most
of the top commanders lack courage and are voiceless. Ultimately,
if left with no graceful outlet, the only option preferable to
these officers would be to plot against Musharraf or help those
plotting against him for other reasons, any reason. Asia Times
Online, a credible source of insider stories about the Army,
has already reported that even a Brigadier was killed a few months
back as part of the failed bid to kill Musharraf. Many officers
have been 'kidnapped' and pamphlets in military cantonments have
become the popular mode of communication, Asia Times
has reported.
This
web site has also produced copy of a confidential GHQ Memo which
practically bars officers from growing beards. It speaks of ‘special
detention centers” where “dozens” of officers
and soldiers are being held without rights in extremely inhuman
conditions. A copy of a handwritten letter written by one Major
Atta to the Government of Pakistan has been reproduced by the
web site as proof of the despicable situation of these dozens
of detainees in special cells.
The
Pakistan Army as an institution is being subjected to gross abuse
by Musharraf and his cronies, creating mass despair, just because
he would not agree to share power with the nation or establish
any decent mechanism of taking Pakistan back into the civilized
world where transfer of power can be achieved without bloodshed
and brute force.
The
only straw Musharraf has been able to grab is the continued support
of President Bush and the Americans but they are caught in the
middle of their own grave follies and are drowning in their own
juices. They would certainly have less to worry if Pakistan were
to become a politically stable place where fall of one man would
not threaten the collapse of an entire system and would not cause
a severe set back to their own war against terror.
Musharraf
is already isolated, a prisoners of his own inner contradictions
in policy and physically trapped in his own security net. He gets
advice from the same few, failed and discredited, though immensely
loyal, bureaucrats and family members now in top positions because
of him. All these men have lost the larger sense of national direction
and balance because they are deeply immersed in day to day operations
of self-preservation.
The
palace intrigues reflected by the political circus around top
civilian posts, the changing loyalties by the day, making and
unmaking of provincial set ups, divisions and differences between
provinces, all show the major players are losing confidence in
the Pakistan Army headed by General Musharraf to deliver anything.
Repeated
attempts by the General aimed at trouble-shooting have produced
no positive results or a sense of optimism. The system Musharraf
created is collapsing.
The
question is whether all the other stakeholders will allow a total
collapse or will they retrieve something to build upon, afresh.
This set up now stinks.
