Let’s not forget my brothers, the men of Siachen
The sentries changed duties and the humble started preparing to bow before their Lord, oblivious of the misfortune they were about to meet. Just about the time when darkness cracked and light approached, with an intimidating thump and a spine chilling swish, thousands of tons of glistening snow descended on the 150 helpless souls, crushing and destroying all that came in its way. The entire Battalion Headquarter was gone within seconds and I, along with thousand others, lost their brothers in arms. Once again we are left to mourn and bewail the deaths of the brave sons of the soil, ...
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Bash thy army the right way
Bashing the military is a favourite past time of the ones who feel they have been enlightened. Following this trend, an increasing number of people want to join this enlightened group, so they have taken to bashing the army too. The tool is a laptop; the location is a cosy house in Defence. The new army bashers however, in my humble view, need to know a thing or two before launching into a gallant bayonet charge. So I have decided to help them out and will now try to explain how to effectively bash the malicious military, or how to ...
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For the family of a dead soldier
Standing outside a hospital corridor, opposite the nursery, I was waiting for my wife to return from the operating theatre after giving birth to our second child. Anxiety was in the process of being replaced by happiness, and I was enjoying the quiet moment. A few minutes later, a nurse brought another newborn baby boy, and some ladies (presumably the family of the infant) followed the nurse. One of the ladies, who looked like a typical grandmother, stood out from rest of the crowd. There was something not quite normal about her. She was relentlessly wiping away tears, saying things like, Mein ...
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Why the Pakistan Army makes state policies
It is difficult to assess whether the Pakistan Army is naïve or strategically calculated to step in the Supreme Court on the Memogate scandal. Obvious, however, is the fact that the critical step has brought the Army out in public, where previously only politicians and bureaucrats were mocked and sorted out. The Pandora’s box has popped open and an influx of articles criticising the unlimited power of the armed forces on defense, foreign and domestic political policies of Pakistan have been unleashed. While political pundits have declared the notion that the army makes the foreign, defense and domestic political policies of Pakistan as a ‘fact’– ...
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A tear for you, dear soldier
There are very few images which have the power to draw out the deepest emotions of the seer. These are the snapshots which really make you empathise with the subjects of the photograph – you try to imagine yourself in the same circumstances, under the same context and events pictured. One such image was that of the 15 FC troops killed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants on January 5. Fifteen men, all from less privileged economic contexts, standing hand in hand with the realisation firm in their bosoms that life ends at this moment. It is a sepoy, a ‘jawan’ who ...
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Fear and loathing for military coups
Three unrelated stories reported in the mainstream media recently gave me an emotional high — and a low. The first story was about a decision by a court in the Turkish capital of Ankara to indict and charge the leader of that country’s 1980 coup with crimes against the state. Bravo! This was a high. But a sudden low came with a news piece on a tribunal’s decision in Bangladesh to send 90-year-old Ghulam Azam, the country’s most prominent Islamist leader, to jail, pending trial for war crimes. The 90-year-old was accused of helping the Pakistan Army in the 1971 ...
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Hypocrisy and defenders of democracy
Hypocrisy may be the tribute vice pays to virtue but Pakistanis take it too far. Those who have appointed themselves as the defenders of democracy, the protectors of our military or the guardians of an independent judiciary have entered a Bermuda Triangle of political argument, where a black hole sucks in whatever logic once existed in their brains. Let’s start with Mansoor Ijaz, or rather his critics. Here is the man who sparked off the crisis that threatens to engulf the PPP and so he is obviously an enemy of all that is decent and democratic. As a colourful businessman ...
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You know the game is up when even Asma Jahangir walks off in a huff with the ball mid-match. The indefatigable human-rights lawyer threw a tantrum after the Supreme Court decided that the charges against her client, Husain Haqqani, in the Memogate casewarranted investigation by a commission. Jahangir decided she could no longer represent Haqqani after accusing the judiciary of working in league with the ‘establishment’, a term that means ‘everyone I disagree with in Pakistan’. In this case, she seemed to be referring to the ISI. Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani more or less admitted that he had no ...
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Liberty must trump security
How safe is safe enough? As terrorist attacks have hit nearly every major city in the country over the last four years, this is a question that almost nobody has asked. We now accept random police checkpoints, and intrusive security measures at places that were once significantly more open. A small price to pay for security, some might argue, but I only have one question: for how long? Exactly when will it be safe enough to take them all down? When there are zero bomb attacks in the country? We have had several months of those. A whole year, maybe? What ...
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Yes, we can…live without foreign aid
Unbeknown to most, the Pakistan Army does not need to adhere to unreasonable American demands because of its dependence on American aid. The Pakistan army has enough financial resources to meet its most immediate needs – the operations in FATA – and to completely modernize its creaky armoury. Simply put, the Pakistan Army doesn’t have to wince at American threats to withhold aid. Never mind the TV pundits who warn of doomsday lest America stops giving us aid, because it might actually herald some desperately-needed reforms. Let’s look at one of the least obscure illustrations of our military’s largess: Lahore cantonment ...
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