Army had been involved in key decisions in the past, so why not now?
March 11, 2014
ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan Army has stopped short of becoming part of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s TTP talks committee, the highly disciplined force had played a pivotal role in extremely important matters, mostly political, for at least six times in the recent years.
There is no official announcement from the Pakistan army after last week’s corps commanders meeting saying whether or not it will name some general for the new body. However, an inside account of the closed-door session spoke about its decision to stay away from the new body of negotiators.
These six instances apart, the army was directly or indirectly involved in working out nearly a dozen agreements with the militants since 2004 with the objective of doing away with terrorism. The association of the military was, at times, forced for unexplained reasons or was sought by the parties to the conflict so that no side reneged from what was agreed. The army was taken as an authoritative guarantor in these cases.
The military was never so much directly affected and concerned with any of these issues more than it has been comprehensively disturbed by the menace of terrorism for a decade now. Even during civilian rules, the powerful voice of the army has never been wished away in different matters. Such rulers had also been voluntarily engaging the successive army chiefs in talks on purely political matters.
Way back in the nineties, the then ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had swapped prisoners at the Karachi corps headquarters in the presence of the then corps commander, Asif Nawaz Janjua. At the time, tensions between the two parties had run very high and mistrust touched new heights. No side was willing to believe the other, and therefore, they involved the corps commander, who later became the army chief.
In 2009, it was the phone call of the then army chief, General Ashfaque Parvaiz Kayani, to Aitzaz Ahsan during the long march sponsored by Nawaz Sharif, demanding restoration of the deposed judges, which brought the protest to an abrupt end midway. A few hours later, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani came on television to deliver a speech announcing to reinstate the dysfunctional justices. It all happened only due to Kayani’s elaborate overriding intervention.
As Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Kayani, on orders from the then President and army chief, Pervez Musharraf, had negotiated a deal between the military ruler and Benazir Bhutto, which resulted into signing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which was promulgated on October 5, 2007. She had insisted that she would agree to any accord only with the presence and involvement of the ISI chief and was not willing to trust anybody else. Kayani had also traveled to the United Arab Emirates for more than one meeting for the purpose. The amnesty law paved the way for return of Benazir Bhutto, which was followed by the forced return of Nawaz Sharif.
In 1993, the ISI chief (Asad Durrani) used to attend the Central Executive Committee (CEC) meetings of the PPP, a fact which was publicly stated, though later, by the party’s Secretary General, Sheikh Rafiq Ahmed, who was a real democrat and could not hold the bitter detail.
The same year, the army chief, General Abdul Waheed Kakar, brokered a deal between the President (Ghulam Ishaq Khan) and the Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif), engaged in a mutually destructive fight, leading to the resignation of both. At the time, Benazir Bhutto was flown into the General Headquarters in an army helicopter for talks in mid-July 1993 when she had announced to launch another long march against the Nawaz Sharif government.
In the fateful talks between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the multiparty Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) leaders, the army chief, General Ziaul Haq, and the ISI director general had attended some rounds at the behest of the prime minister. After the general elections in 1970, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared that there were three forces in Pakistan - the PPP, the Awami League and the Pakistan Army.
During the tenure of the previous government, the army officers took part in negotiations with Maulana Sufi Mohammad of Swat to restore calm in the region through peaceful means. Barring this exception, all others were political matters in which the army was directly involved on its own or was brought in.
Those associated with the present dialogue process with the TTP said during conversations with The News that without the direct involvement of the Pakistan army, achievement of any positive results would remain a dream.
They said that it was only the army that understood the issue of terrorism and all of its aspects because it was dealing with it since long whether a civilian government or military rule was in place.They said that civilian interlocutors, how informed and well briefed may be, would not be in a position to aptly respond to the demands of the TTP during talks.
They said that like the civilian government, the Pakistan army undoubtedly wanted end of bloody mayhem without further delay because billions of rupees have been pumped into fighting terrorism apart from massive human and material loss. Everybody ought to come forward to rid the homeland of the menace, setting aside any reasons, they said. All the four members of the prime minister-nominated committee had unanimously advised Nawaz Sharif to induct a concerned army general in the next committee to hold result-oriented parleys.
They said that they have done their bit by securing an unconditional ceasefire from the Taliban and the decision making process needs to be conducted by other government representatives.
There is no official announcement from the Pakistan army after last week’s corps commanders meeting saying whether or not it will name some general for the new body. However, an inside account of the closed-door session spoke about its decision to stay away from the new body of negotiators.
These six instances apart, the army was directly or indirectly involved in working out nearly a dozen agreements with the militants since 2004 with the objective of doing away with terrorism. The association of the military was, at times, forced for unexplained reasons or was sought by the parties to the conflict so that no side reneged from what was agreed. The army was taken as an authoritative guarantor in these cases.
The military was never so much directly affected and concerned with any of these issues more than it has been comprehensively disturbed by the menace of terrorism for a decade now. Even during civilian rules, the powerful voice of the army has never been wished away in different matters. Such rulers had also been voluntarily engaging the successive army chiefs in talks on purely political matters.
Way back in the nineties, the then ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had swapped prisoners at the Karachi corps headquarters in the presence of the then corps commander, Asif Nawaz Janjua. At the time, tensions between the two parties had run very high and mistrust touched new heights. No side was willing to believe the other, and therefore, they involved the corps commander, who later became the army chief.
In 2009, it was the phone call of the then army chief, General Ashfaque Parvaiz Kayani, to Aitzaz Ahsan during the long march sponsored by Nawaz Sharif, demanding restoration of the deposed judges, which brought the protest to an abrupt end midway. A few hours later, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani came on television to deliver a speech announcing to reinstate the dysfunctional justices. It all happened only due to Kayani’s elaborate overriding intervention.
As Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Kayani, on orders from the then President and army chief, Pervez Musharraf, had negotiated a deal between the military ruler and Benazir Bhutto, which resulted into signing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which was promulgated on October 5, 2007. She had insisted that she would agree to any accord only with the presence and involvement of the ISI chief and was not willing to trust anybody else. Kayani had also traveled to the United Arab Emirates for more than one meeting for the purpose. The amnesty law paved the way for return of Benazir Bhutto, which was followed by the forced return of Nawaz Sharif.
In 1993, the ISI chief (Asad Durrani) used to attend the Central Executive Committee (CEC) meetings of the PPP, a fact which was publicly stated, though later, by the party’s Secretary General, Sheikh Rafiq Ahmed, who was a real democrat and could not hold the bitter detail.
The same year, the army chief, General Abdul Waheed Kakar, brokered a deal between the President (Ghulam Ishaq Khan) and the Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif), engaged in a mutually destructive fight, leading to the resignation of both. At the time, Benazir Bhutto was flown into the General Headquarters in an army helicopter for talks in mid-July 1993 when she had announced to launch another long march against the Nawaz Sharif government.
In the fateful talks between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the multiparty Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) leaders, the army chief, General Ziaul Haq, and the ISI director general had attended some rounds at the behest of the prime minister. After the general elections in 1970, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared that there were three forces in Pakistan - the PPP, the Awami League and the Pakistan Army.
During the tenure of the previous government, the army officers took part in negotiations with Maulana Sufi Mohammad of Swat to restore calm in the region through peaceful means. Barring this exception, all others were political matters in which the army was directly involved on its own or was brought in.
Those associated with the present dialogue process with the TTP said during conversations with The News that without the direct involvement of the Pakistan army, achievement of any positive results would remain a dream.
They said that it was only the army that understood the issue of terrorism and all of its aspects because it was dealing with it since long whether a civilian government or military rule was in place.They said that civilian interlocutors, how informed and well briefed may be, would not be in a position to aptly respond to the demands of the TTP during talks.
They said that like the civilian government, the Pakistan army undoubtedly wanted end of bloody mayhem without further delay because billions of rupees have been pumped into fighting terrorism apart from massive human and material loss. Everybody ought to come forward to rid the homeland of the menace, setting aside any reasons, they said. All the four members of the prime minister-nominated committee had unanimously advised Nawaz Sharif to induct a concerned army general in the next committee to hold result-oriented parleys.
They said that they have done their bit by securing an unconditional ceasefire from the Taliban and the decision making process needs to be conducted by other government representatives.
