Of all oaths taken there is none more sacred than one taken by a general, nor that taken by a judge. If the oath of a general holds its sanctity against violation, the external borders of the state stand secure. And if a judge honours his oath, he ensures the inner security of the state. And between these two oaths and from them, all other oaths taken in a state draw heft and steadfastness.
But oaths hold no meaning or sanctity when uttered by men having a preferred association with falsehood which they want to retain, unsullied by the stain of truth. Gen Bajwa, who was the sword arm of our state for six years, swore to us that the army had withdrawn from interfering with the politics of the state and had withdrawn into a position of neutrality, even as he was deep in intrigue to bring about regime change in Pakistan.
And today, four years after Nawaz Sharif, the preeminent bandit of our accursed history, was allowed to flee the sentence of justice which he was serving, he has been made kosher and flown back into the playground of his depredations. He has done this on the same magic carpet of neutrality on which he was flown out.
He has now been brought back so that the ravaged carcass of Pakistan can be thrown open to his tender mercies once more, and the little still be left on its bones, be pecked off.
One oath-bound general, Bajwa, made it convenient for him to flee. His partly exposed assets of 12.7 billion makes one suspect that he must have been richly rewarded for the dishonesty which came so naturally to him. Another oath-bound general, Asim Munir, has eased him back in. What his “consideration” was, has yet to be exposed. But his love for the country surely lies uncovered. One general rescued Shahbaz Sharif on the day he was to be indicted, and made him prime minister. And the other brought in his elder brother, a proclaimed offender, and a convict on the run, with the aim of making HIM prime minister!
And the army was supposed to be the institution that bred patriots!
And not a single one among the high command thought it fit to speak up for the people and the land they are supposed to defend, and for which they are so richly paid!
You may indeed dress them up as peacocks and let unearned medals jangle on their craven chests, but underneath they shall remain true to their genes and inadequacies… of the nature and the nurture of the low-bred.
It must indeed take copious reserves of immorality for them to remain insensitive to their acts which infect a few bricks of the national edifice every day and put these beyond treatment or redemption. They have ruined much and march on undeterred to destroy the rest. Their tweaking and micromanagement of every institution has left the already poorly functioning ones, non-functional. And those which can still function, can do so only as rogue institutions. And the man leading the charge against the state is one who has sworn to eradicate corruption from society! The Almighty used to bring about miracles, but now He has begun to entertain us with the facetious!
So how does one become equal to the task of grading their shamelessness? The best I can do in this regard is to recall a cricket test in Lahore when one of our guys dropped a catch and a spectator in the row below began shouting ” dullah oye dullah”. And at once he was corrected, “dullah nai shora”. Not being acquainted with the technical intricacies that differentiate the two, I ventured to ask the friend next to me if he could throw some light on this. “It’s quite simple,” he said. “Whereas ‘dullah’ pimp ‘outside’ women, ‘shoras’ pimp ones of their own family. And should you address a dullah as a shora, he is liable to take grave offense!”
I leave it for the reader to decide if he thinks he is being done in by the one, or by the other. As one who is a part of the family, or as one who is outside it. Sadly, most of those closest to me, having worn the uniform, and thus being “of the family” must feel that they are being done in by the “shoras”. Which is a better feeling, who can tell!
However that be, Pakistan is being stifled, strangulated, and garroted. This happened to the people of Gaza. The peacocks must draw a lesson from what happened there. Each day that passes they are detested more virulently than on the day just passed. As in Gaza, there is an eruption in the making. The sooner this explodes, the sooner we shall be rid of them, or of ourselves. Either way it shall be a blessing.