Pakistan will never overcome its woes and misfortunes till it is openly, constitutionally and fundamentally recognized that the Military is not merely a paid institution of the country, doing the job that your guard at the gate is assigned to do—the Military is far more than that—the Military is the essence of our Nationhood—in the least a significantly vital component of our state structure. This concept originates from a fundamental and an undeniable truth of our History. The Prophet of Islam (PBUH) whose Umma we are, and to whose life, and philosophies, and acts, and sayings, and commands, we owe our allegiance, was apart from being the Last Messenger of God, also a “General-Cum-Sate Builder”.
These two roles—Generalship and State-Building got merged in the unsurpassable personality of the Founder of Riasat-e-Madina and Founding Father of all the succeeding Empires of Islam.
This disdain for the ‘Uniform’ on the part of our political leaders, civil bureaucracy and so-called intellectuals is a ‘compulsory’ product of the Culture of Power Politics.
Mian Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari are disdainful of the Generals, not because of their love for the concept of the Rule of the People—they are disdainful because they regard the Uniform as the only lingering threat to their power.
Just a little more than a couple of decades back General Jahangir Karamat—- the-then Pakistan Army Chief had floated the idea of a National Security Council to be constituted to act as the supreme Policy-making body of the country.
This sent Mian Nawaz Sharif into rage: “How the hell these paid employees of my government dare think of sharing power with me? I am the voice of the people who have voted for me. Those who have not voted for me are bloody scoundrels—thankless idiots who deserve to rot in their homes or graves.”
General Karamat was sacked.
But these are very different times. Two decades back, MNS would have sacked General Qamar Javed Bajwa for having met Imran Khan. Today MNS has to rely on the services of some paid media personalities who don’t mind Army-Bashing on one pretext or another.
The whole political map of the country stands changed.
There is an Imran Khan in politics.
There are Generals ready to confront all enemies—from within the country or abroad. There are judges who say: “We are responsible to God as well.”
And our traditional rulers stink with ill-gotten wealth—-
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