Army�s State: The State - of the State in Pakistan

Except for few years of its history of 68 years, there are only two ways Pakistan Army (and not Pak Air Force or Pak Navy but just Pak Army) ruled the country. One, when Pak Chief of Army Staff is on the front seat holding the wheel and second, when he is sitting on the back seat but pulling the strings of the democratically elected Prime Minister who is allowed to sit on the front seat.

No one knows this fact better than current PM of Pakistan – Nawaz Sharif. It is his third term as the Prime Minister. During 1980s, he was supported by ‘Internal Wing’¹of the infamous ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) that gave rise to his political career. He became PM on 1^st Nov 1990, but developed some differences with President Ghulam Ishaq khan, who attempted to dismiss him (Nawaz Sharif) on corruption charges. When the situation worsened, the then Pak Army Chief Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar persuaded both gentlemen to step down.²

During his second term as PM, he dared to assert more civilian control & on 6^th Oct 1998, he asked for resignation of the then Pak Army Chief Gen Jahagir Karamat because, the General was making public statements advocating giving greater role to Pak Army in policy making. After Karamat’s resignation, PM Sharif appointed Gen Parvez Musharraf as COAS over heads of two senior general officers. Perhaps PM Nawaz Sharif hoped to have more compliant COAS but it did not happen. Gen Karamat’s resignation and appointment of his chosen candidate gave a false sense of confidence and security to PM Sharif. He dared to initiate peace process with India and invited PM Vajpayee to Lahore. This did not go well with Pak Army and what followed was the Kargil war.

Later in Oct 1999, while Gen Musharraf was in Sri Lanka on an official visit, PM Sharif again dared to decide and replace Gen Musharraf with Gen Zia-ud-din Bhatt but, the whole process ended with a coup and Gen Parvez Musharraf assumed control of Pakistan.

Fast forwarding to 2013, Sharif became PM for the third time on 7^th June 2013 after getting a heavy mandate in General Elections. Soon came the tough time when he had to appoint a new Army Chief. In an interview given to Karan Thapar, Sharif said that, he will go by the book, while appointing the next chief. But again on 27^th Nov 2013, over two senior general officers, he appointed Gen Raheel Sharif the new Army Chief.

History repeats itself when men repeat their mistakes. Perhaps PM Nawaz Sharif expected Gen Sharif to be more compliant. Partially because PM overlooked two senior officers while appointing Gen Sharif as CAOS and partially because of Gen Sharif’s balanced political views and his background. Gen Sharif never commanded any Pak Army Corps. After commanding 11th Infantry Division, he became commandant of Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), Kakul and then Inspector General of Training & Evaluation as Lt General. But within a year, it started becoming clear where the centre of power exists in Pakistan.

First major sign came when Nawaz Sharif government decided to begin trial of Gen (R) Parvez Musharraf. Gen Musharraf was charged with treason for his decision of suspending the constitution and imposing emergency in Nov 2007 (Interestingly, Musharraf was not charged for toppling elected government in 1999). Pakistan Army in general, including Gen Sharif, were against the trial. Gen Sharif has close relationship with Gen Musharraf because, the later was course mate of Gen Sharif’s brother – late Maj Shabeer Sharif (Nishan-e-Haider).

As per law, it was necessary to get Gen Musharraf appear in the court room to read charges against him. But it is not an easy task in Pakistan to get a serving or retired General in court room. In Dec 2013, after months of notices and pressure, when Gen Musharraf started from his home toward the court, he developed a `heart problem` on the way. Instead of going to near-by hospital, his caravan drove for about 45 minutes to reach Army Hospital where he stayed for next 6 weeks under Army’s protection. During these 6 weeks, civil government and judiciary virtually had no access to Gen Musharraf and Pak army did whatever it could to persuade civil government to back off and drop the charges.

Today Gen Musharraf lives peacefully in Karachi in a compound of 20 houses which is heavily guarded by men in uniform. No one can meet him without Army’s permission!

Second clear sign appeared when in Nov 2014, newly elected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani came to Pakistan. His first visit to Pakistan after assuming office, he drove straight to General Head Quarters in Rawalpindi instead of meeting his counterpart. This was a clear indication of what other countries think about who has more control in Pakistan. And this is why, through an article in Financial times, China has asked Pakistan govt to give lead role to Army in CPEC project.³

Then came the terror attack on APS School, Peshawar which shifted the centre of power towards Gen Sharif decisively. On 16^th Nov 2014, armed terrorists attacked APS Peshawar and mercilessly killed 132 students. A cowardly and inhumane act that shook entire world.

On 17^th Dec, Gen Sharif and ISI head Gen Rizwan Akhtar flew to Kabul to meet Afghan and US officials. Gen Sharif met Afghan President to inform him that the Army Public School attackers came from Afghanistan and terrorist organization ‘Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’ (TTP) is using Afghan soil against Pakistan. He sought handover of TTP head Mullah Fazallulah to Pakistan.

On 25^th Dec 2014, an All Party Conference (APC) was called on Pak Army’s initiative and it was decided to setup Army courts in Pakistan for trial of captured terrorists in entire Pakistan. National Action Plan was formulated and approved. Soon after that, Pak army launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was launched without proper approval from civilian government. All this, aaccording to Aqil Shah, the author of The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan, “effectively took away the initiative from the civilians and handed it over on a platter to the military.”⁴

And this was not the first or only meeting of Gen Sharif with a head of the State, in which he discussed matters of Pak’s national security or economic projects. Generally, such discussions are held between Foreign Secretary or Foreign Minister or Head of the states but clearly Pak Army is the real Foreign Ministry in Pakistan. Gen Sharif has visited a number of important capitals of the world like Washington DC, London, Riyadh, Tehran, Istanbul, Beijing, Kabul, Dubai etc where he met PMs, FMs, Presidents and, of course, his counterpart too.

Recently in May 2016, Torkham border cross on Pak-Afghan border was closed because Pak forces were fencing the border post to control the cross border traffic. Afghan forces objected to fencing as Afghanistan does not recognize the Durand Line. Afghan ambassador in Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal met Pak government a number of times to get the Torkham border re-open for people but there was no progress. Finally, he went to GHQ and met Gen Sharif. That border post was opened on the same day!

Same is the case of Angoor Adda check post that Pak army built around a year ago to monitor cross border traffic. As Afghanistan has never accepted the Durand line, this post became a bone of contention. In May 2016, Pak Army handed over the check post to Afghan Authorities in an attempt to improve mutual trust. But civil government was not even informed, forget about taking their permission. Federal Interior Minister got to know about this handover from tweets of DG of ISPR and from subsequent media reports. His first reaction to media was that he will take up matter with the PM and will get it enquired but again as usual, nothing of that sort happened.⁵

A month earlier, in April 2016, Gen Sharif sacked 6 senior Army officers on charges of corruption. This was unprecedented in Pakistan and could be seen as a sign of things moving in right direction. Two days before sacking 6 officers, Gen Sharif had given a stern warning “across the board accountability is necessary for the solidarity, integrity and prosperity of Pakistan.”⁶

Analysts see this warning followed by sacking of army officers as a way to bring current Pak government, who is struggling with Panama Paper leaks, under pressure.⁷Otherwise, officers could have been sacked following the court martial without making such public statements.

Nowhere in the sane world, will one see an Army chief doing all this. And ironically Pakistani media projects it as a necessary swift action taken by Gen Sharif and criticize elected government for not having done the same. It is well known in the different power corridors of the world that Pakistan’s Foreign policy is not just influenced by GHQ but is governed by GHQ. But GHQ’s quest is not limited to foreign policy. It is not ready to sacrifice its share in power they have enjoying for more than 6 decades. GHQ simply does not trust any political party; they like to have close watch on Government’s policy and pull the strings wherever find necessary. It became very much visible when Pak army launched Operation Zarb-e-Azband, then operations in Karachi and Balochistan as well. They are conducting military operations in every state of Pakistan except Punjab, most of the Army men (officers and other ranks) hail from. There are hundreds of sanctuaries of religious extremism in the form of madrassa in southern Punjab. A section of media & politicians has been demanding military operation there as well but Civil government has neither the power nor the guts to ask army to march in there.

As per New York Times’ latest report⁸, posters urging Gen Raheel Sharif to take over the country “For God’s sake, take over” have been pasted all over the country. Few analysts believe that there is no direct hand of agencies (read ISI and ISPR) in having these posters pasted everywhere but scholars like Aqil Shah disagree. As per Shah, ISI and ISPR are behind the popularity campaigns being run of news channels, talk shows, social media and newspapers. Through these campaigns, Gen Sharif has been projected as an upright, honest and courageous leader who is battling (and winning) Pakistan’s war against terrorism and corruption. One who is leading the country onto right path instead of the corrupt and selfish politicians who are busy making money for themselves.

Perhaps these are the reasons that Nawaz Sharif, after his return to Pakistan after open heart surgery in UK, has been championing ‘Kashmir’s freedom movement` and has started waiting for the day when `Kashmir Banega Pakistan’. He definitely has something to fear. He surely would not like to see a repeat of what happened to him during his first and second term.