The game is up…business is on

The army chief dealt his hand and the game is up. True to his plain-speaking style and also conscious of his public image, the general was not going to let his position be dragged through chaotic chatter and conspiratorial analysis. Almost 10 months to his retirement date, he spoke up.

Raheel Sharif, opting to speak through his spokesman, has said he is against extensions and that his successor will ably captain the institution. His message was that individuals are not indispensible. Scattered rumblings about why the army is not conducting counterterrorist operations in Punjab, or why it is advising that the Rangers conduct an operation there, or whether the prime minister now feels ‘secure’ enough with the army chief to offer the army chief an extension, or whether the general is planning to ‘go after’ all the politicians, and above all whether the army chief will accept an extension, will now likely disappear.

There will also be no surprises of a dead-in-the-night prime minister’s speech making dramatic announcements as we witnessed in the case of former army chief Gen Kayani. On July 22, 2013, the elected prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had appeared on national television to deliver the record-making short speech ever delivered by a Pakistani prime minister. To a sleeping nation the prime minister had announced the indispensability of the army chief. The war on terror was not possible without General Kayani, and hence his extension.

The then president Asif Ali Zardari, encouraged by his ‘level of comfort’ with the army chief plus Washington and London’s praise of Gen Kayani’s performance in the war on terror, had offered him a one-year extension but Kayani would only agree to a full-term extension. Kayani had not sought an extension but accepted it when offered. The temptation of extension, especially in Pakistan, seems to make many falter. Kayani took the extension he shouldn’t have.

In Gen Raheel Sharif’s case that is unlikely since his response to emerging chatter about his extension, unlike his two predecessors, did not prompt him to turn to the prime minister for intervention. In the case of Gen Musharraf, post-Kargil fiasco, in October 1999 he called the prime minister’s key aide and asked him to publicly clarify if he would be ‘kicked upstairs’ as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee or given that as a joint charge.

Nawaz obliged his army chief. And the rest is history. Interestingly, in Gen Kayani’s case, when the media began speculating and was critical about Kayani’s extension the elected prime minister was advised to not delay the extension announcement. Hence the PM’s record-making shortest speech around 1:45am to a slumbering nation.

Gen Sharif, having ruled out the possibility of his extension, has critical ‘work-in-progress’ to be completed with the help of the army and the agencies. The complex task of cleaning up the structures and support bases of militants, mentored directly and indirectly by his predecessors, is still underway. As the lead point-man on dealing with the military and intelligence aspects of counterterrorism, the military chief will continue to provide professional input in the national effort to deal with the constant threat of terrorism. That is what the country requires from the army chief now.

The question of the army chief’s extension is linked to the effective position the army chief enjoys in Pakistan’s power structure. Constitutional hierarchy is of course another matter– in fact, a scorned matter for captains in khaki. A grade 22 officer, the army chief has throughout our history retained the ability to roll in tanks and men, the dreaded 111 Brigade and also the men in black robes, to trash the constitution. Through history khaki captains have viewed Pakistani politics and society in a similar manner to that of a ‘white man’s burden.’ So much – they believed– had to be reformed, so much had to be cleansed and hence many opted for coups and guided democracy.

Time proved that all have feet of clay and all falter, sacrificing the constitution, peoples’ interest, national security etc at the altar of self-interest. The khaki’s notion of the white man’s burden began with first bringing ‘order’ in the 1950s. In August 1959, Ayub Khan passed the Elected Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO), followed by the Islamisation of society via Gen Ziaul Haq’s hellish reign sowing the seeds of hate and intolerance while leading astray God-fearing men with blunders at home and abroad. And finally came generals who ended up believing that without them the curse of terrorism could not be countered. They ended up believing in their own indispensability.

For example General Musharraf, concerned about the militant mindset in some section of the armed forces, once shared the belief that he needed ten years as the chief to bring back professionalism within the forces and wean them away from the ways of the Afghan war.

Our history has also witnessed people glorifying khaki captains. In the days of heightened political intolerance, especially through the 1990s, political rivals covertly partnered with khaki captains to oust elected governments, or opted for the benign neglect of coup-makers. Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, to differing extents, benefited from coup-makers and the unconstitutional ways of generals. The MQM and PML-Q, the JUI and others have openly partnered with coup-makers and reached the seat of power riding on the backs of khaki captains.

However, we live in different times now. Democracy, with all its weaknesses, is now the only political game in town. Nervous and blundering governments and politicians often invoke the threat of ‘enemies of democracy.” None exist here, beyond the normal power-play that exists in nascent democracies. Media – in the digital age especially – calls everyone to accountability. We live in times of collapsed hierarchies and hyper-accountability.

With coups out, the post of the army chief too needs to settle down to the normalcy of the post of the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The announcement by Gen Raheel Sharif is a great step in that direction. His announcement over time will prove a watershed in Pakistan’s power construct. As a well-respected professional and popular general, Sharif has shown the way to all professional generals. Your time is up when your term is up. Like former chief Gen Waheed Kakkar, Gen Raheel has shown no interest in an extension.

The elected PM should also view the next appointment as a decision to be taken on merit, not on personal preferences. Generals don’t serve prime ministers (as they must not), they serve the state. The PM should nominate one of the two senior-most generals as the next chief when the time comes. Until then the current army chief remains in control, leading the army from the front on a war for our survival. Along with it, the general is also set to take steps to rule out conflict of interest in the top ranks of the armed forces. The case of the Kayani brothers is one that the army chief is watching carefully. The elected leadership, meanwhile, knows how much work it too must do on NAP is outstanding.

The writer is a national security strategist, visiting faculty at NUST and fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Centre.

Email: nasimzehra@gmail.com

Twitter: @nasimzehra