The Generals need to be very clear that they will never get the needed cooperation from the politicians in the matter of targeting the terrorists. And they need to know the reasons for this reluctance, and the sooner they know this, the better it will be for them and the country.
Most of those whom we broadly define as terrorists, are criminal elements of society. So the question is why should the politicians be reluctant to see these criminal elements being eliminated, and society cleansed of their odious presence?
The reason for this is not too complex to understand. Most of the criminals being targeted are not free lancers. They are mostly foot soldiers of a complex web the links of which go right up to the political bosses who run them through a parallel organization. And they also run the country–though in the latter case they are running it into the ground.
If the above is understood, the reluctance of the politicians is easy to comprehend i.e. sooner or later one of these foot soldiers will divulge information which will lead to his boss, and then the boss of the boss and so on, till you get to the very top. And this is a fear that is genuine and realistic.
And so, if the politicians are unenthusiastic in their support of a measure which may lead to their own destruction, one can easily empathize with them and understand their reluctance to give whole hearted support to the army operation.
And the army needs to understand this. As a principle it has to understand that it, and the politicians are fundamentally arrayed against each other, and that it would be naive for it to expect cooperation from forces whose range of interests and motivation is adversarial to those of the army.
So, when General Raheel lets it be known that there will be no martial law, it is a welcome declaration; but when he extends this to mean that this commitment rules out all type of intervention as well, it is very bad news for Pakistan. This operation cannot succeed if it is restricted only to defeating the foot soldiers in a criminal enterprise, where the leadership of this enterprise is allowed to function freely. The criminals at the helm of Pakistan cannot be reformed by prayers or admonition from the Generals. They have to be thrown out and brought to the book. If the battle for Pakistan has to be won, mega corruption has to be ruthlessly checked, and the loot recovered and restored to the state. This cannot be done without army intervention. This, the Generals need to be very clear about. Their approval rating is incredibly high. In lean times like the present this rating should be considered to be a gift from heaven. But in order to be realized, the benefits of this gift can only flow down to the people of Pakistan if this credibility is to be deployed to squelch the greatest evil bedeviling this land. And this evil is mega corruption, from which all other evils flow. It is the army which legitimated the prostitution of high office, through the notorious agency of Musharraf’s NRO. And it is only the army which has the power to reverse it, and delegitimize it. This cannot be done by targeting only the foot soldiers of the criminal web, without also crushing the heads of the vipers who control these foot soldiers, and who are robbing this country blind. The Generals HAVE to understand this, and also that each Pakistani who roots for them, is looking ahead for the army operation going towards its natural conclusion, which is the end of the mayhem wrought by unchecked economic terrorism, which will bring this country to its knees without the enemy across the border having to fire a shot.
But this latter phase of the operation cannot begin with the credibility to sustain itself, without first starting with the accountability of the Generals themselves. Even if Gen Raheel merely restricts himself to confidentially passing notes to his retired colleagues to pay back what they have stolen, and leaves it at that, a great start will have been made.
Already there is a flutter among the politicians on the basis of unconfirmed reports that three generals have been cashiered, and the affairs of others are being inquired into. This is causing great fright among the mega plunderers, who see this as a very ominous development. They fear an Army Chief who has started with cleaning his own house. They cannot believe that this will end there. This will surely extend to them. The people of Pakistan are in earnest prayer that the fears of the politicians are well founded.
And as General Raheel Sharif grapples with the many problems afflicting Pakistan he must never lose faith in himself and his commitment. He must know that there are many examples in history where one well- intentioned man of total commitment, coming at a crucial juncture of history, has changed the fate of his country, and the fortunes of his people.