Comment
ISLAMABAD: “Thank you for your kind words and support. I am grateful,” said the outgoing Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the farewell dinner.
The remarks and thanks on part of Gen Raheel to the Prime Minister for his consistent support were rare as the army chief either usually remained silent on this subject, or at least he rarely appreciated efforts made or policy given by the prime minister and federal government in public domain, though he always spoke of masses’ support.
On the other hand, PM Nawaz was always generous in his praise for Pakistan Army and Gen Raheel and what he has been doing on different fronts including Zarb-e-Azb while following government’s policy and orders.
Gen Raheel remained silent regarding role of the federal government with regard to different achievements during his public addresses. Like in case of Karachi Operation, which was ordered by the prime minister in September 2013 when Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiani was the army chief and the same date is reflected in official press releases of Sindh Rangers times and again, the outgoing army chief rarely appreciated the policy of the federal government to cleanse Karachi of terrorist elements. Rangers were always present in Karachi as a powerful institution with full backing of the Pak army but Karachiites have to face horrible circumstances and daily based bloodshed in streets of the Pakistan’s financial hub was a routine during more than one decade before 2013.
It is interesting that Rangers and other institutions openly blame MQM as the main culprit behind terrorism in Karachi, whereas it is an open secret that the MQM was an ally of Gen (R) Musharraf during his rule.
Many intense operations against hard-core terrorists were carried out during tenure of Gen Kiani in different parts of the country including in tribal areas and in Swat. Swat operation was a great success of Pak Army and General Kiani. Terrorism has almost been eliminated from the Swat valley. However, many other operations are still ongoing.
The federal government had shown its resolve to counter terrorism in Karachi, Balochistan and religious sectarian terrorists belonging to Taliban or their associated groups. It was the federal government’s resolve to convince the entire national leadership to sit on with the security establishment and devise a national policy to eradicate terrorism. The National Action Plan (NAP) was agreed upon and adopted. No doubt there were serious problems regarding implementation of NAP on different counts because of capacity and other issues but as a matter of fact it was an initiative of the civilian government and some improvement in overall law and order situation was observed.
However, in many of his speeches, Gen Raheen never appreciated the prime minister or the federal government openly for its role much better than previous governments. It is known that different retired officers were running campaigns against the elected democratic government on a very large scale on different WhatsApp groups, social media and in social circles. They were openly attacking the person of the prime minister, terming him a security risk and ‘a traitor’. Same line was adopted by some news anchors of a section of media, most of whom had never been working journalists. All these circles gave an impression of being close to the defence quarters.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in almost all of his public appearance appreciated the Pak army and the role of Gen Raheel in eliminating the terrorists who were playing havoc with the country.
In the past, there were allegations on some important circles regarding links with religious groups but during Gen Raheel Sharif’s tenure, the so called duplicity in the policy came to an end and armed forces acted against terrorists without any discrimination and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was never short of words while appreciating Gen Raheel for his services.
