slogan and said nobody comes forward to report wrongdoers to the law-enforcement agencies (LEAs). “In Pakistan, we have no religious or sectarian discrimination; we are all Pakistanis and we would not like to fight wars in Yemen, etc., on sectarian grounds. It is for the first time that Pak army told Saudi Arabia, “Sorry.” “The Army of today is different from the past because all personnel in armed forces are battle hardened; battle-hardiness matters. This battle experience has made the army far better than our times. We are fortunate to have a professional COAS who is doing very well in combating terrorism. Raheel was given a task and he is accomplishing it well,” Khan further said.
He said there are many others like Raheel Sharif who are ready to take over when he retires with honour. Kargil was a big mistake and we lost a lot including precious lives, who should be remembered. Ali Quli Khan said he had seen Kargil being a major, Lt-Col, COS and a corps commander and the whole area was on his palms, but all those who were involved in Kargil at the military hierarchy level did not prove worthy of their positions.
Replying to a question, he said Pervez Musharraf did not actively take part in the 1965 and ‘71 wars and probably wanted to prove himself. Replying to another question about how bad did the army felt about Ziaul Haq era, he said they would if the civilians would feel the same about the current governments.
Shuja Nawaz, author of “Crossed Swords” said instead of relying on theoretical textbooks, real-life experience is being written by battle-hardened instructors. “In fact, both the instructors and students are both equal in battle experience; their interaction is producing excellent results. “The facets of war have now changed from conventional warfare to asymmetric warfare; this is reality to the hilt. “The armed forces and people are together again as they were during 1965 war, which is a positive sign; they can now fight the enemy in a perfect unison inside and outside Pakistan,” Nawaz added. He said from an Army projected to fight wars on the frontlines this role was later redefined to fight internal wars. “As PMA commandant, Gen Raheel Sharif started training of ‘quick reaction forces’ to deal with militants and terrorists.
The present COAS is a product of hard training and reflection of past experience.” The instructors and students now have Swat and FATA battle experience and are capable of handling complex internal security problem. “In Swat I saw the missing element, the close coordination with civil society and the armed forces needed to rebuild destroyed battle zones.
“The shift from conservative thinking in armed forces is a positive sign. The armed forces must not stay longer than necessary in civil affairs, after doing its incisive operations they must hand over charge to civilians. The operation in Karachi was launched as a consequence; success in Karachi is now a case-study success story,” Nawaz concluded.
Dr Jabbar Khattak, secretary general of CPNE, said Pakistan Army has been playing a positive role in Pakistan in addition to their duties on borders. This has impacted our country’s history both inside and outside Pakistan.
He said Lt Gen Ali Quli Khan was not made COAS due to reasons best known to the Army hierarchy. He also questioned about Musharraf and Yahya Khan being made army chiefs even though they did not actively take part in the wars of 1965 and ‘71. He also doubted the dream of real accountability that would it ever come true. Ikram Sehgal said, “I know Gen Ali Quli Khan for the last 51 years; he is a straightforward soldier.” In a lighter vein, he said Major Shabbir Sharif Shaheed, Nishan-i-Haider, elder brother of the present Army Chief and Gen Ali Quli were the two outstanding cadets in 29th PMA and fought boxing against each other at the Academy.
Anil Datta adds: Shuja Nawaz, author, political and strategic analyst and former director of the South Asia Centre, Atlantic Council, Washington DC, while speaking on the occasion said that whereas the stereotyped pattern was that the army personnel, both ORs and officers, were from a particular geographic belt, today they were being inducted from all over the country and the ethnic and linguistic distribution was uniform. He endorsed a statement made earlier by Lt-Gen (Retd) Ali Quli Khan that it was not just the army personnel that made up the army but “you all”, meaning thereby, the people.
“Today it is not just a certain area but the people who are the army. Over the last few years, in fact, there have been a large number of young men from Karachi joining the army than from any other region,” he said. This, he said, was because Karachi was the microcosm of Pakistan with diaspora from all regions and ethnic groups of Pakistan represented there, the Pakhtuns, the Punjabis, the Baloch, natives of Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindhis, all having sizeable representation there. He said that whereas still sometime back in our history, the army was tasked with defending the geographical frontiers, today it had the responsibility of defending the ideological ones too. Today the role of the civil society, he said, was equally pivotal to the functioning of the armed forces.
He mentioned his interaction with the commandant of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) at Kakul and said that now the focus of the training was not just confined to combating dangers to the geographical boundaries of the country but also fighting insurgency and terrorism at home. Today, he said, a congenial law and order was complementary to the role of the army.