Thinking over Sheikh Hasina’s recent ouster from power in Bangladesh, my mind has repeatedly nudged me to consider what role its army chief played in this. Apparently, he did a whole lot of good to his country merely by refraining from playing any role beyond just holding back, despite the fact that his wife and Hasina were related.
It is said that he was acutely aware of the sentiments of those he was in command of, and allowed these sentiments to be his guide. And if he needed additional advice in the matter, this came from senior retired officers, which he did not allow his ego to disregard.
Not knowing much about Gen Waker-uz-Zaman, I cannot fit him into any fixed category among Generals. Perhaps his lack of complicated thinking came to him from a common sense dictum of the Hippocratic oath: “First, do no harm”. Had he not demarcated quite clearly the position he had taken on the issue, and dithered even for a fortnight, incalculable harm could have come to his country.
What led me to think about how things transpired in Bangladesh was what was happening in my own country, specifically with regard to political rallies cum protests by the PTI.
The way our government has dealt with these has been by resorting to methods of monotonous malice. And behind our government what can clearly be seen lurking is the deranged will of our army chief.
Just examine the following:
Peaceful protests are the right of every political party, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
The PTI applies for permission to hold a political rally. The DC, instead of according such permission, plays possum. The PTI then resorts to the High Court to get it to nudge the DC back to life, who takes considerable time to shake off his delirium and manages to wake up fully just a few hours before the rally is due to begin. The permission he then gives is for a venue which is miles out of town, and the time slot for which this permission is valid is such that it can scarcely be adhered to. And then, just in case there is the danger that the timetable may be met, and the rally is a success, the DC blocks off all routes to the allocated venue by the liberal use of containers and barbed wire. To ensure that the proceedings shall always be lively, the police keep arresting and packing off citizens to jails, while its squads are at hand to fire a volley of tear gas or rubber bullets into the crowd whenever mayhem needs to be sown. When the rally overshoots the time allotted, power to the venue is cut off, and political leaders in attendance are charged with offences from a long list of fabricated cases. The whole show finally ends with the police giving chase to these leaders, while the latter run like chickens chosen for slaughter. It is only on the next day that one gets to know the scorecard of police successes, and how many of the chickens succeeded to give them a slip.
In short, the whole show seems to be set up in a manner so that it is rich with the possibilities of a re-enactment of another false flag on the lines of May 9. There can be little doubt that the government, and the army chief it serves, would like to see one of these political rallies degenerate into mayhem and bloodshed. From this blood, they will hope to draw advantages which only they would know.
Already they have ruined every institution of the country, and destroyed any hope of the rule of law. But if there was an implausible chance of this being rehabilitated, Qazi Isa has ensured that this be buried deep. In trying to save the skin of Sikander Sultan Raja, the Qazi, through his toadies on the bench like Justice Aminuddin and Naeem Akhtar Afghan, has got it ruled that a judgement of the Supreme Court may not be considered final. This is the most lethal hit on the rule of law yet. And let it not be forgotten that Qazi Isa and Asim Munir have been hand in glove in the ruination of the state.
It is for the readers to slot Asim Munir into any of the following categories based on his track record as they see it.
There have been generals throughout history, who were known to have sent shivers down the spines of the enemy. Then, there have been those, whose very presence on the field of battle has been a temptation for the opposing enemy general, to immediately take the offensive against them. And lastly, there are generals whom the adversary would like to see left strictly alone because, left to their own devices, they were ruining their own armies and states to the complete satisfaction of the enemy.
The government must realise that, being a product of fraud, it is illegitimate. Because of the way it has dealt with the people it was meant to serve, it is the most despised government in our history. It must therefore refrain from deploying tools of intolerable provocation when trying to control events where a despoiled people gather to give vent to their feelings. It must do its utmost to avoid a situation which may result in the shedding of blood. And if the government won’t pay heed to this, at least the generals, no matter how mercenary they have proven to be, must. If not for the good of the people, they must try and avoid the black mark of becoming the only army in the world that has destroyed the country it was supposed to protect, and has done so twice.
Email: saeedakhtarmalik85@gmail.com