Maligning of institutions criticised

LAHORE: Defence circles have taken exception to an article by a former bureaucrat in which national interest has been defined as “shorthand for the interests of an institution that reigns supreme”. Talking to The News on the condition of anonymity, they said this is a taunt and even a man of common intelligence can judge it easily as to which national institution of the country is being targeted with the use of such remarks, say these circles.

What is the fun in maligning institutions, they ask.

The author has tried to coin ‘incisive’ and difficult questions surrounding the release and subsequent transfer of American official Raymond Davis to America in what he terms a surreptitious manner. The author says, “What happened after some time as a compromise surreptitiously achieved before a court of law invoking provisions of ‘diyat’ or compensation money and the killer was whisked away by our spooks to a plane waiting to take him back to the US”.

These circles ask: “How it can be said with authenticity that Pakistani spooks did it in a manner that is questionable on the yardstick of law and justice. If ‘diyat’ compensation was given by the accused in that case, it means that the reconciliation deal materialized in a legal manner with the consent of the aggrieved parties and their kin”?

Painting and projecting it as an act undertaken by Pakistani establishment is unjustified. This pleases external forces that look at the present inter-institution harmony especially the one-page status of civilian and military leadership in Pakistan with scepticism and ill will. ­