Bad push

The ‘quiet’ little tussle between the military and the civilian leadership has lately taken the form of statements issued from various offices. The communiqué put out by the prime minister’s PR office on Wednesday night stating that the implementation of the National Action Plan is a joint responsibility makes no reference to the rather more harsh statement issued by the ISPR after a corps commanders meeting, criticising government inaction to enforce NAP. But there can be little doubt that the carefully worded statement by the government was intended as a low-key response to all that had been said by the military. The government, after emphasising its commitment to enforcing NAP, called on all institutions to act within their constitutional limits – a polite hint that the public statement by the military was uncalled for. It is stating the obvious that Pakistan has suffered badly from an imbalance in civil-military relations and the country has been only eight years out of its last spate with military rule – with the battle against the growing militancy in the country being one of the most significant challenges facing us.
The challenge is not a simple one as it is the product of over four decades of what can only politely be termed as mistakes on the part of both civilian and military institutions. Not only has the well-known strategy of supporting proxy militants blown back, various political parties and non-political forces have also chosen to align themselves with sectarian and militant groups to win elections or gain other advantages on numerous occasions. This is part of the wider social and political context of the current issues surrounding the country over the implementation of the well-intentioned and much-needed National Action Plan. The plan, even though no one will admit it, aims to rectify four decades of ‘mistakes’ on the part of those in charge of the state of Pakistan. While there is no denying that civil and military

authorities may be on different pages when it comes to the implementation of NAP, there is no use for them to dry their dirty laundry in public. We have unfortunately been pushed in that direction after the military chose to air its concerns publicly.
What should our politicians have done to mitigate the problem instead of trying to fan the flame? The question seems futile as our politicians are the first to forget lessons learnt many times. As the debate on NAP was taken to parliament the major opposition parties used the military’s remarks to lash out at the PML-N. The ease with which the PPP and PTI have latched onto the public criticism aired about the civilian government is amazing. While the PTI stance is more understandable, given its penchant for ‘political’ expediency, the PPP’s Khursheed Shah’s eager desire to tow the same line was in bad political taste. And the less said about the MQM the better. Its anti-army bouts are too recent to be written in the past tense; the PPP too had not lagged far behind it in giving dire warnings and threats to the military. The convenience with which the PTI has forgotten its infamous stance on how to counter terror is matched only by the level of convenience with which its leaders can talk of principles in politics. Perhaps not very surprisingly Mehmood Khan Achakzai of the PkMAP broke rank to stand by the civilian leadership, questioning the army’s right to attack it. This then has been the sad sight resulting from a public statement that should not have been made. This is not going to do anybody any good, not even to those who think they can use this opportunity to score ‘political’ points, when the real issue must remain countering terrorism. We all know it is easy to be critical and much harder to act as the government is being asked to do, especially as it must – as it said in its statement – stay within the constitutional ambit. The government too, we all know, must function under pressure from other forces. This of course does not apply to the military. But what does apply to all of us, and especially our political parties is the need to understand that there is a time to ‘play politics’ as usual and there is a time to rise above petty opportunism and demonstrate statesmanship.