As I have written earlier, in my view Gen Bajwa’s sellout of Pakistan’s higher interests, as brazen and as treacherous as it was, was triggered off by two compulsions:
- He had been subverted at an earlier rank and when activated by his master’s to do his duty, he had little choice but to act as ordered.
- He was bribed by the Sharifs to do their bidding while they held proof of this bribe, and thus he was under the threat of blackmail from them. So, he chose to sell off his country rather than be “shamed” by the fact of the bribe he had accepted.
And so, when Gen Asim Munir took over, hope, no matter how timid, chose to reassert its right to show up again.
In those early days I tried to get a contact of any one of the senior generals to impress upon him the need for early elections as the ONLY way out for the army to dig itself out of the hole where its erstwhile Chief had dug it into.
When I eventually got the needed contact, I wrote the following letter to him. I hoped this would be the first of a few.
30 Dec 2022.
Dear General. Assalam Alaikum.
It has not been my privilege to have known you. As a matter of fact this is the the first time in my life after that I do not know any serving officer.
I am writing to you because I am overwhelmed by my concern for my country and the army. And both, I might add, are in a parlous state. And you are one person, holding an office which you do and having the special trust of your Chief, which you enjoy, who can be instrumental in getting both the state and its army out of the hole they find themselves in.
In case such an attempt is to be made, it must begin by first determining and then facing some very ugly and painful truths.
I want to convey some of these truths to you, as I perceive them.
You may find agreement with what I may have to say, or you may disagree with it. The important thing though, is that at the very least you will get one point of view. And this may help you to begin, and then broaden your search for solutions to some of the problems identified.
I look forward to your response.
And as I end, I do so with the sincerest prayers that 2023 will give you everything needed to help out your country and bring the army back to its preeminent position of esteem it once enjoyed in the hearts of those whose essential asset it has always been.
Yours very sincerely.
.
Within a couple of hours I had my response. The note I received was singularly lacking in grace. And its core message bespoke a sense of entitlement which could only have been borne on a huge wave of arrogance — that all those who had ever worn the uniform should consider themselves duty bound to stand with the army rather than feel that they had any right to proffer advice!
To this note by the general my draft reply was:
“Dear General.
I am grateful for your response. But before you let your sense of self-importance run away with you, you may like to consider that it is the serving generals who owe something to those of us who are out of uniform, and not the other way around. You may like to begin by apologizing to us for having besmirched the fair name of the army and for taking away from us our most cherished legacy– our pride in the army which we served. Where we once proudly owned the army, you have left us feeling shy of admitting that we ever belonged to the once noble brotherhood of arms.”
But this draft remained a draft. The general deleted his response to me just as I could save it, and in so doing, conveyed to me that my privilege of interacting with him had been withdrawn, and that this window of communication had been closed.
From then on, I’ve had little doubt that Gen Asim and his senior generals are fully committed to following Bajwa’s agenda. Bajwa’s compulsions were easily understood, but Asim’s are beyond me, unless he was one of Bajwa’s blessed circle of plotters receiving direct revelations from Washington.
My belief is that Bajwa must have had an inner core of a handful of generals with whom he must have plotted directly. Most of the others seem to have sunk ever deeper into the morass of criminality, from one conference to the next, by being party to the criminal mini steps being discussed in their presence, without summoning up the courage to register their disagreements to had been discussed in their presence. That incremental criminality seems to have piled up into mountain by now, sufficient for them to take their country down in order to keep their heads. What else explains their huge commitment to keeping Imran Khan fenced off in a political limbo if they did not fear being held to account? They must indeed have plenty to be accountable for.
And Imran Khan seems unwilling to relent. The present situation, unless defused, will lead to the shedding of blood. The first blood to be shed will lead to more. And then more. In an unprecedented situation where the generals do not enjoy any public support, but are positively loathed by the people, and where even the bulk of the army looks down on them, they have a choice to back off now or surrender later. They will not long be able to sustain their primacy. Eventually they will have to flee or submit. But by then Pakistan will be left a smouldering ruin. The price will have become too high to pay.
So now is the time to take steps to avoid such a possibility. I am reminded of the proverb: “if you have an elephant by its hind leg and it wants to get away, it is best that you let it get away”.
Imran Khan should therefore give all guarantees of immunity to the generals which they find acceptable as a price to pay for the larger good of Pakistan. And Gen Asim Munir should help to bring an immediate end to this country being run like an ill-managed brothel and ensure immediate elections which are free and fair beyond a doubt.
To the many who will find my suggestion unthinkable on “a point of principle”, I will suggest that they go back and read the Treaty of Hudaibiya once again. There too a point of principle was involved. And the principle was much larger. But to avoid bloodshed the Holy Prophet [pbuh], in spite of protestations by some notable sahaba, decided to return to Medina without performing the Haj. The claims of ego were not allowed to displace a course dictated by good sense. The next year Mecca lay down its arms without a sword being drawn.
There are times history ought to be recalled and learned from. The existential exigency of the present is one of those times.
Pakistan has got to be salvaged from the looming catastrophe no matter what the compromise.
The dawn of promise must be given a chance to rise again instead of pushing it into eternal night with a setting sun.