Anza Kanwal
Smooth civil-military relations hold the key to political stability and an efficacious management of external and internal security in Pakistan. Therefore, both the civilian leadership and the top brass of the military seek a friction-free relationship to devote fully to their exclusive domains of authority and work in harmony in the overlapping policy space or when they need to supplement each other. Shahid Qureshi, editor The London Post, in his recent article titled ‘Did General Qamar Bajwa missed Indian and Nawaz Sharif Spin on Dawn Leaks?’ stated: “The whole theme of Dawn Leaks was designed to undermine the only surviving and reasonably performing institution – The Armed Forces of Pakistan…Had army and its institutions took the strict action against Geo TV Group’s ISI and its chief General Zaheer-ul-Islam bashing seriously, there would not have been a Dawn leak.” One has right to form an opinion, but one should not give judgment without any evidence. It is unfortunate that some politicians, intellectual elite, commentators and civil society members through their statements and comments denigrate state institutions and also try to stoke clash between them. They should realize that clash between institutions could shake up very foundations of the state, and the consequences could be disastrous.
In another paragraph he also tried to provoke military by saying “”Well General Qamar Bajawa, speeches of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and current defence minister Khawja Asif are enough for you to make up your mind. If you still don’t know who is running Nawaz Sharif and his regime, then you may as well excuse yourself from this role as your stance on ‘Dawn Leaks’ has already damaged the morale of the country and army ranks and files.” The fact of the matter is that during General Raheel Sharif’s tenure, only once civil-military relations came under stress when a private TV channel had accused the ISI of being behind an attack on its anchor person. The then information minister Pervaiz Rashid had in a statement said “hum ghulail walon ke naheen dalil walon ke sath hein.” It was unfortunate that world’s sixth largest army and 5th largest air force in the world armed with nuclear arsenal was described as ‘ghulail wale’. Since COAS General Qamar Bajwa took charge, there seemed to be complete understanding. But after the controversial notification from Prime Minister’s office with regard to Dawn Leak report, and Director General ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor’s tweet stating “Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected,” led to the standoff.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said there was unnecessary noise surrounding the directives issued by the PM’s Office in relation to an investigation into a story published in Dawn, adding that a formal notification has yet to be issued in this regard. He further said the final notification would be issued by his ministry and would be in line with what he called the black and white recommendations made by the inquiry committee. One can infer from his statement that notification from PM office was incomplete. He also admitted that PM office direction to his ministry was leaked. Yet he said: Institutions should not address each other through tweets, in an apparent reference to a tweet by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Anyhow, Interior Ministry issued the notification which was in line with the recommendations of inquiry board.
It is worth mentioning that Pakistan’s political leadership is more mature and political parties are better established. The country has developed a middle class, an active civil society, a vibrant media and an independent judiciary. Whenever required, Parliament is getting briefing on security matters from the Services Chiefs and decisions are taken through consensus. Although military enjoys autonomy in its internal affairs, somewhat healthy civil-military relations exist. The Army is more deeply involved now than a decade ago in support of activities for the civilian government: law-and-order tasks; relief and rescue operations after natural disasters; the use of its organizational and technological resources for public welfare projects; greater induction of its personnel in civilian institutions; anti-terrorist activities; and containing narcotics trafficking.
A National Action Plan (NAP) was jointly formulated by the political parties and the armed forces to win the war in the cities. There is a need of full cooperation between the army and the civilian governments at the centre and the provinces. Similarly, Rangers and Police, and military and civilian intelligence agencies have to work together rather than work at cross purposes. Terrorists will have a field day if a tug of war was to ensue between governments led by the mainstream parties and the establishment or if there is disregard for civilian institutions by the military-controlled intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
