No general can prosecute a war when his soldiers are unwilling to fight. Good generalship is not only defined by victories won, but equally by defeats staved off. And often this is achieved by the generals having an accurate measure of the pulse of those who are under their command.
Almost always those not in service pick up this pulse from those who are still wearing the colors. And so, one from the other, a sentiment spreads.
The current feedback by a huge margin is that the army would not like to be a part of this war. the war simmering in the innards of Pakistan. And THIS WAR is where they are seen as being deployed to further the Bajwa agenda.
For decades now, regime change has been accepted as a standard tool of U.S foreign policy, with the local army being in the vanguard of the country where a regime is sought to be changed. Such operations raise no eyebrows among the intellectuals or the academia in the U.S. The School of the Americas was the accepted nursery where loyalties of young officers from foreign armies were bought and changed. But such sales took place at other fora as well.
Thus, there is little doubt in the minds of most that prior to regime change in Pakistan, Bajwa’s loyalties were subverted. The matter of speculation merely is how far back the seeds for this were sown, and how many of his peers were similarly infected.
Also, a rumour is rife that in return for letting Nawaz Sharif flee justice from Pakistan, Bajwa was gifted a huge sum of money.
And it was the magic of this windfall which helped to purify thugs like the Zardaris and the Sharifs. And the potency of this magic was such that it inclined the high command to believe that despite their depredations, these thugs would be acceptable to the people of Pakistan! One would have thought that such madness could be the product of only very poor fiction at best. The overall effect of the foregoing on the majority of those in uniform is that they are being made to stand in defense of ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH, AND THE FRUITS OF TREACHERY! AND THEY DON’T WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS. IN 1977 THE ARMY CHIEF DEPLOYED UNWILLING TROOPS TO QUELL THE ANTI BHUTTO UPRISING. BRIGs NIAZ, ASHRAF, AND ISHTIAQ, REFUSED TO ORDER THEIR MEN TO FIRE ON THE PROTESTORS. ALL THREE BRIGADIERS WERE REDUCED IN RANK, SUFFERED A LOSS OF 25% IN THEIR PENSIONS, AND WERE THROWN OUT OF SERVICE. Each one of them enjoys more respect today than Gen Zia ever will. We are again reaching an inflection point. The army does not want to stand in support of the thugs. And the generals would do well not to put their army to this test.
This is all Gen Asim Munir and his high command need to know about the pulse of those they are commanding. For this, no convoluted briefings from the intelligence are necessary. These will only help them get bogged down in the minutiae of events instead of having total clarity on the central issue which is moving Pakistan.
If there is no clarity on this issue they will be condemned to react and plod on from one blunder to the next, getting mired in the morass of irrelevance, each step of the way.
And they will continue to be overtaken by events and end up achieving mental paralysis brought about by lack of clarity, when clarity was yet a possibility.
They can throw their weight behind immediate elections today. This will rid them of the main problem and gain them time to repair the damage done to the army. With delay they will have to confront the consequences of this problem which will keep becoming larger by the hour.
It is obvious that elections are to be delayed in order to deny power to Imran Khan.
BUT WHY IS THIS SO ESSENTIAL? THE RANK AND FILE KNOW THE ANSWER. IT IS FOR THE HIGH COMMAND TO ARTICULATE TO THEMSELVES THIS ANSWER WITH ABSOLUTE HONESTY. This is all that’s needed.
In a couple of months, with events overtaking them, they may well be reduced to putting a national government in power with the same Imran to head it, because he is the only political force that has any relevance to the obtaining political reality!
So why not push for elections without loss of time, without fearing the result, so that the full weight of the disaster can be averted?
Or will it come down to a case of taking a second hit at Imran to make amends for the first one that missed?
They really have no other options.
The compulsion to hang by the coattails of the Bajwa legacy and its sins, is robbing them of credibility, and the country of another chance. They must make a clean break from this and achieve a victory.
Gen Asim is new in office, is free of taint [compared to Bajwa], and so must feel strong enough to exercise this option.
Let him not throw this chance away, for a victory has never come so cheap to a general.