11 days of living dangerously

By Ghazi Salahuddin
May 14, 2017

Once again, T S Eliot – and it’s not about April being the cruellest month. There is a cryptic question which the poet posed: “Where is the life we have lost in living?” But I wonder if this thought would suitably illustrate our wasteful preoccupation with confrontational politics when so many life-and-death issues demand the nation’s attention.

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Still, we have just had a prolonged and pregnant pause in this merry-go-round when a tussle between the military and civilian institutions was seen brewing. This was serious against the backdrop of our history. Besides, it served as the grist to the mill of the popular media, particularly the talk-show variety. A pulsating sense of crisis was building up.

Thankfully, this tension lasted for only 11 days. Or would you say that the suspense kindled by that fateful tweet of the DG ISPR, in response to the government’s notification on what we know as the Dawn leaks, was sustained for an excruciatingly long time?

Another thought is that the Dawn leaks affair was allowed to simmer for a little over seven months. This means that it all began when Raheel Sharif was the army chief and possibly some other factors had intruded into how the Dawn report was judged, underlining the difficulties of defining our national security.

In any case, the crisis was resolved on May 10. This happy ending was cathartic in many ways and manifested a sagacious approach on the part of both the military and the civilian leadership. First, there was a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, with some high functionaries from both sides.

After that, DG ISPR Major Gen Asif Ghafoor held a press conference to announce the decision to withdraw the controversial tweet. He said: “[The] Pakistan Army believes in democracy like all other Pakistanis and will continue to work to strengthen democracy in the country while remaining [within the ambit of] the constitution”.

It is significant that when Major Gen Ghafoor was asked if the army would demand further action against those responsible for the ‘leak’, he said that the prime minister was the final authority and his orders should be implemented. Later in the day, the interior ministry issued a statement to say that since action on the orders of the prime minister had been completed, the issue “stands settled”.

Would this be a landmark in the chronicle of civil-military relations in the country as a major confidence-building measure? An answer to this question calls for a careful review of how the crisis had developed and how it has been resolved. In a sharply polarised country, those who oppose the present government and others who root for an authoritarian dispensation are bound to be displeased with this outcome. Hence the audible grumble about a ‘muk muka’.

Irrespective of how popular opinion responds to the latest headlines, the Dawn leaks episode – and particularly the 11 long days after that remarkable ‘notification is rejected’ tweet – need to be carefully studied and put in their proper perspective. This exercise ought to be insulated from the breathless bickering that is served on our television talk shows.

Incidentally, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) monitors the civil-military relations on a regular basis and issues its reports every month. The idea is to identify key developments that take place within the domain of civil-military relations in Pakistan and around the world. So, how did Pildat respond to the climactic phase in the saga of the Dawn leaks?

On May 5, it held a meeting of former civil and military officers and intellectuals in Lahore. According to a press release, the participants agreed that “the tweet of the DG ISPR…was inappropriate in terms of the constitution” and recommended that a meeting of the National Security Committee “should be convened urgently to repair the damage to the civil-military relations and to the image of the elected government and its valiant armed forces”.

On Friday this week, Pildat released its monitor on civil-military relations for the month of April. Let me just list the 10 points that this monitor has analysed: the DG ISPR’s tweet on the letter issued by the PMO; the initial disagreement on Dawn leaks; Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar’s comments at the POF Labour Day ceremony; the clarification by the DG ISPR on the military’s stance about the Panama Papers’ case judgment; the membership of the JIT in the Panama case and Senator Aitzaz Ahsan’s comments; former COAS Gen (r) Raheel Sharif leaving for Saudi Arabia to head the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance; PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s talks about his meeting with COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa; the interactions between the prime minister and the COAS; the resignations of the Afghan minister of defence and the Afghan army chief ; and the Indonesian military chief being reproached by the Indonesian president.

This would give some idea of the range and complexity of issues that relate to civil-military relations and how they impinge upon governance and the sense of direction of the country. Getting the latest surge in tension between the government and the military out of the way is a welcome step because it could distract our attention from the strategic challenges that are emerging in the region. In addition, there are domestic concerns that define our capacity to wage our war of survival in a non-military setting. Pakistan’s social sector is as fragmented and fragile as our military is powerful and institutionally integrated. This overlapping of two realities is a subject for serious introspection on the part of all segments of our society.

For instance, on the day when the Dawn leaks issue was settled, two other events took place. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) released its ‘State of Human Rights 2016’ report in Islamabad. HRCP Spokesperson Asma Jahangir said that the courts, which are responsible for protecting human rights, have been infringing on the rights of the people. One headline: “2016 saw highest number of disappearance in six years, HRCP report finds”.

The other event I want to mention was the announcement of the result of the 2016 CSS examination by the Federal Public Service Commission. It showed that just two percent of the applicants passed. There has been a steady decline in the quality of our civil servants. Combined with the falling standards of our higher education, this is an intimation of a national disaster.

Will they talk about these matters the next time the civil and the military leaders get together?

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddinhotmail.com

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