I do not know Gen Nadeem Anjum or Gen Babar Iftikhar, nor know anyone who knows them. I did hear them speak on Oct 27,2022 but have no way of evaluating what they asserted, beyond noting that the press conference was unprecedented.
It was obvious that this conference was an attempt to set the record straight from their standpoint. Arshad Sharif was murdered, and the High Command were the prime suspects to have instigated the murder. This suspicion had to be diverted and allayed. This was a job considered serious enough for which the army had to deploy big guns. But the size of the guns only succeeded in making the suspicion deeper.
That it was an attempt to change minds was clear to all. To this extent their effort was futile and unavailing.
This was not so because they failed to change minds, but because they failed in their assessment to know that there were no more minds left to change, as sides had already been taken.
And more so because they were dilating on issues downstream of the central issue which remained untouched.
And this central issue was the new reality obtaining in Pakistan which came into being immediately as Imran Khan was deposed as Prime Minister and millions of people poured out in protest, unsolicited and unbeckoned.
To begin with, these massive protests were an expression of rage of the people against the gangsters and thieves who were guided and ushered in, to take Imran Khan’s place. And then, without external stimulus, this rage turned into support for Khan.
The unprecedented support which Imran Khan enjoys is the new reality of Pakistan. Everything that has happened after his ouster is peripheral to this central reality which is operating in two parts i.e the massive public support for Khan, and the utter loathing and contempt for the bunch of thugs appointed to rule the people of Pakistan in his place.
You may keep on having press conferences till the cows come home, but unless the central issue agitating the minds of the huge majority of Pakistan is directly addressed, the froth will not settle.
Lesser mortals were not allowed into the room when regime change was planned and pulled. They don’t even know if there was any plan behind it. But the important thing is not that. The important thing is they BELIEVE there was a plan.
What is BELIEVED by such massive numbers BECOMES the obtaining reality of the day. In light of this reality, what the people are asking is, “when you had the power to pull off the regime change, why are you desisting from employing this same power in order to correct the inequity you foisted on us?”
This question was being asked yesterday, it is being asked today, and it will continue to be asked till kingdom come.
And if the answer to this is to be continued press conferences which ignore this central issue, only to delve instead into matters peripheral to it, this would be akin to a deliberate losing of the peak to grasp at the pebbles.