The elusive ‘same page’

Government functionaries hardly miss any occasion when the ‘same-page’ mantra about harmony of thought between the civil and military leadership on Fata and Karachi operations is not repeated. But recent statements by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the inauguration of the metro-bus service in Rawalpindi regarding wars in martial law eras and former president Asif Ali Zardari’s earlier allegation that his party has been relegated to a third place in national politics by a ‘magic stick’ are indications that all is not well in civil-military relations.
The Achilles’ heel of this mutual distrust is the yawning gap between two different approaches. The one favoured by the politicians requires the military to fight in a limited corridor, as it were, and if it becomes a never-ending venture with mounting losses, so be it. And the other favoured by the military is of an all-encompassing approach as visualised in the NAP and agreed to by all political parties in the hope of sustainable peace.
Regrettably, the gap between the two, with one side seeking cooperation and the other heavily constrained by complexities of conflict of interest, is widening instead of narrowing in the face of an existential threat to the country. To make matters worse, the prime minister, stuck in a time warp of his own, appears to be playing smoke and mirror games – now he is aligned with the military, now with Zardari.
The military, like the general populace, rightly believes that unless the unacceptable level of financial corruption at high places is reversed, the country’s economy will not pick up and terrorism will remain out of control. In the recent apex committee meeting in Karachi, no words were minced to link these malpractices with terrorism. Why blame RAW if our own people are channelling funds for these nefarious activities? So goes the argument in private. But powerful centres of power remain tone deaf to such suggestions.
Our politicians would like the military to look away from anything that can singe their feathers. In their worldview, outflow of boatloads of capital in the south or hurried execution of overpriced, opaque and heavily subsidised mega projects in the north and a plethora of mafias operating in the country are legitimate fruits of the Pakistani brand of democracy and not worthy of losing any sleep over.
As for terrorism, the politicians in the first place never had their heart in this fight. All of them – and lest we forget, Imran Khan led the cacophony – naively believed in negotiations with these thugs who had waged war on the state. I say naively because where on earth has anyone ever negotiated successfully with an adversary riding on a high horse?
Mercifully, it was the military that started military operations after the attack on the Karachi airport and expanded its scope further after the APS Peshawar incident. But ‘time’ and ‘space’, it must be remembered, is central to every operation and cannot be ignored, not in the present milieu especially. It was Napoleon who famously said that space lost can always be re-captured but time lost never can be.
The military has captured much of the space controlled by terrorists in the past but it must be worried about the ‘time’ – between now and the retirement of the COAS, considered to be the prime mover of the current effort – in which it would be appropriate to take matters to a logical conclusion to avoid paying a heavy price in blood and sweat again. This keenness is understandable as it firmly believes that if left open-ended, the gains made so far could wither away soon.
In fact there is a growing perception that there is a race between two sets of dynamics – one of the November 2016 timeframe when the COAS retires and his doctrine could fade into history , and the other of politicians making it to the 2018 elections for another grand harvest of the same. The military is an institution and its policies should not change drastically with a change in command, but that is not quite so. There is always a different approach with the change of the man at the helm – as evident from transition from General Musharraf to General Kayani and from him to General Raheel Sharif.
There is also another angle from which stems the military’s anxiety to complete the task at hand as soon as possible. It is the historical evidence that when desired and timely results are not forthcoming, politicians will not take long to disown the entire process. It cannot forget Kargil where Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the briefing in the 10 Corps Headquarters, asked if the effort would eventually lead to capturing Srinagar, and even had prayers offered for the success of the misadventure, but now he sings a different tune. The legendary unpredictability of Nawaz Sharif is a discomforting thought for those in uniform.
This is not to exonerate the military under General Musharraf who chose to hide the full scope of the operation from an elected federal government. This is criminal conduct and those responsible must be held accountable. It is strange that, instead of accepting responsibility for this monumental crime, he and his lackeys even today indulge in a laughable spectacle of taunting the Indians about shortage of wood for their dead during Kargil. What about the grass recovered from the stomachs of our dead soldiers as they had nothing to eat?
In this age of media revolution, nothing can be worse for the morale of a soldier in the battle zone than his perception that he does not have the wholehearted backing of his political leaders and his military leaders are helpless in securing that support.
Interestingly, in the wake of recent Indian statements, it is the military that has had the last laugh since it has always held a view that, given the slightest opportunity, our eastern neighbour will cause grievous harm to Pakistan. That home truth is now suddenly becoming obvious to others.
It would have been better had the military’s viewpoint in the past been given due consideration and not been scoffed at. If the Indian army can hold the hand of its longer entrenched democracy from taking initiatives in Kashmir to repeal draconian laws and in Siachen, why should the Pakistan military’s input on MFN and other issues be considered as interference?
We need to be careful in responding to this latest situation as every silly statement from the other side does not necessarily warrant a silly response – some statements from here are downright stupid. Leaving too much for the ‘international community’ to take notice will not serve much purpose either. It will take notice only if, through superior diplomacy, we succeed in painting ‘Modi sarkar’ as war-mongering and dangerous for regional stability. This is strictly a conventional challenge and should be dealt with accordingly without loosely bandying about the ‘N’ word or else we run the risk of falling in a trap with the world looking at us in a negative light.
The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo which derailed Napoleon’s formidable war machine and changed the history of Europe is being celebrated this month. In the tactical action around the now famous farmhouse at La Haye Sainte, it was not any lack of valour of French soldiers due to which Napoleon lost his empire. Rather it were the four crucial hours lost in moving beyond the breached defences of the king’s German Legion (Germany was then aligned with Britain) which enabled Prussian General Blucher to link up with Wellington. And the rest is history.
The more one thinks of that key battle and its classic lessons, the more one gets worried about our brave soldiers who have captured ‘space’ back from the terrorists through rendering supreme sacrifices but could lose in ‘time’ just because the civil and military leadership in Pakistan is hopelessly struggling to be on that elusive ‘same page’.
The writer is a retired vice admiral. Email: tajkhattak@ymail.com