By Atiq Durrani
In 2007, when Gen. Ashfaq Kayani took charge from Gen. Pervez Musharraf as the 14th Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Pakistan was going through the most difficult times of its history. The role of Pakistan Army was under severe criticism; the country was hit by the two vices of Political instability and terrorism.
Pakistan was under serious security threats from its western borders, once considered to be the safest border of Pakistan and the situation was not too different at eastern border, where India is used to mobilize its Army towards its border with Pakistan after every terror attack made in India. They have developed this new strategy in which they will self-righteously mobilize their troops first and will talk out the issues later.
The internal situation of the country was worse than ever. Baluchistan had become an international issue thanks to National and International media that was biasedly highlighting the human rights violations on the behest of some separatist forces. This daring of the media came during the Musharraf time, who had given enormous freedom to the media, and the issue caught fire after the death of the Baloch leader Akbar Bugti. At the same time India started helping the Baloch separatist movements and improvised the training of the recruits of Baloch separatist movements like BLA from Afghanistan, that later started attacking the security forces and people of Balochistan.
In FATA, the writ of the Pakistan government was being challenged by the TTP, whose influence in the areas of FATA and Sawat was growing every day. Most of the cities of Pakistan had been hit by suicide bombers and the security situation in the major cities of Pakistan was worst.
Political situation was not much different than the security situation, after the taking over of Gov. by Gen. Parvez Musharaf from Nawaz Sharif in 1999, there were many up’s and down’s in the politics of Pakistan that ended with removing of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Emergency declared in Pakistan, Lal Masjid Operation and Lawyers movement to restore Chief Justice. All these political activities tarnished the image of Army and put Pervez Musharaf under austere criticism by different political and human right organizations.
That was the time when Pakistan’s first spy master became the 14th Chief of Army Staff and started his tenet.
“Change has to be measured for sustainability before it is judged for acceptability. I would rather change things by 10 percent, if they are sustainable and acceptable, rather than change things by 80 percent, where they will not be sustainable, nor acceptable” General Kayani
Democracy in Pakistan
The first command Gen. Ahfaq Kiyani made was to order military officers to distance themselves from the politics and the politicians. ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) was ordered to focus on external threats and leave domestic politics alone and all military officers were withdrawn from Pakistan’s civil departments.
Setting a new parameter in the History of Pakistan Gen. Kayani extended unprecedented support to democracy and favoured the political process in the country without keeping his personal likes and dislikes in the politics of Pakistan. This helped democracy to flourish in Pakistan that resulted in May 2013 as country’s first transition of power between two democratically elected governments after the 2013-Elections.
Kiyani is also considered to be the man behind the secret talks that brought the two mainstream political party leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif back to the political grounds of Pakistan in 2007. When Benazir Bhutto the popular leader of Pakistan People Party was assassinated just few days before the 2008 elections there were rumors all around about another military coup, the situation created insecurity about the 2008 Elections but Gen. Kiyani’s effort for the free and fair elections made the general elections possible. Gen. Kiyani supported democratic process and the decision made by the people of Pakistan to handover the government to Pakistan People Party that was led by Asif Ali Zardari after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Just before the 2013 Elections, at the fourth annual Youm-e-Shouhada conference in Rawalpinidi, Gen. Kiyani said in his speech "I assure you that we stand committed to wholeheartedly assist and support the conduction of free, fair and peaceful elections. I also assure you that this support shall solely be aimed at strengthening democracy and rule of law in the country."
During his tenure Gen. Kiyani improved the civil-military relation that restored the tainted image of the Armed Forces and the fact that he restrained himself and Army to lead a coup against any of the democratically elected governments restored the faith of Political parties in the Military Forces of Pakistan. This ultimately helped Gen. Kayani to gain reputation in internal and international political circles.
Restoration of Judiciary
When Parvez Musharaf imposed a state of emergency on November 3, 2007, and sent the chief justice home for second time because Judiciary was expected to rule Parvez Musharaf ineligible for the office, the movement was started by the lawyers who called for a long march and extensive media coverage for the restoration of Chief Justice. In March 2009 the major political parties also joined the long march under the leader ship of Nawaz Sharif.
Once again there was uncertainty in Pakistan and Marshal-Law was expected anytime. Many analysts and columnists thought that Army will never miss this chance to take over the government from Pakistan People Party but once again Gen Ashfaq Kayani solved this problem between the Government and the other political parties. As a result on 16th March 2009, Prime Minister announced the restoration of the judiciary including Chief Justice.
Professional Achievements
Immediately after taking over the charge as Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Asfaq Kiyani declared 2008 as the Year of the Soldiers and took steps for the betterment of the soldiers. As a first step the building project of GHQ in Islamabad was stopped and the money that was allocated for the GHQ building was distributed among the formations to improve the living standard of the Jawans of the Pakistan Army.
When Gen. Kiyani took charge of the 6th largest Army in the world, the policies and training of the Army was mostly India-centric. Army was trained for conventional war especially against India as Pakistan already had fought three wars with India. But at that time Pakistan was facing internal insurgencies in FATA and Malakand. These territories were new for Pakistan Army as after the announcement of accession of FATA tribes with Pakistan in 1948, the Quaid-e-Azam had announced withdrawal of armed forces from FATA and designated the tribesmen as defenders of the 1000 km long border with Afghanistan. Pakistan Armed forces had never strategized defense in FATA after that, but now after the insurgencies, Pakistan Army required special training to fight the unconventional war in FATA.
Keeping that in mind, 2009 was declared as a ‘Year of Training’ to bring professionalism in Army. Special arrangements were made and special trainings were organized at battalion level and competitions were held on brigade and division levels that enhanced the professionalism of Pak Army. These training included lessons on clearance of villages and acquaintance of local traditions, tribal linkage and even learning Pashto language, the language that the people of FATA speak. The officers would learn how to lead smaller, more tactical deployments that would not only act swiftly to deal with the insurgents but would be discreet to the locals. All the existing concepts were refined and new approaches were developed in the series of exercises like Azm-e-Nau.
As gen. Kiyani was a first spy chief to become COAS he made some major but silent changes to develop cooperation between ISI and Army. He reduced the operational and strategic gap between ISI and Army, by tagging the best and brightest to serve as two stars in one of the ISI’s several sub directorates, this was major change as previously ISI’s man could not get four stars. The counter terrorism wing of ISI was restructured to make more effective in the current security situation of Pakistan where Pakistan was facing more internal threats than the external for which ISI was basically trained.
Operations Rah-e-Rast and Rah-e-Nijat
Operation Rah-e-Rast was launched against the Taliban in the Swat Valley and Malakand Division after the failure of several negotiations with TTP by the political leadership of KPK. Rah-e-Rast was a limited scale operation after little resistance by TTP; Malakand division was cleared of the terrorist. Many TTP operatives were killed or captured, and the remaining were driven back into the tribal areas. Fazlullah the commander of TTP Sawat managed to flee into Afghanistan. During this operation Gen. Kiyani frequently travelled to the conflict areas and met his men fighting against the terrorists.
A successful operation in Malakand division increased the moral of Pakistan Armed forces. The operation was praised and appreciated by the whole nation. As the spirits were high in all the ranks of the Army, operation Rah-e-Nijat was started in tribal areas especially in South Waziristan against the TTP traitors, who were following the takfeeri ideology. Rah-e-Nijat became another successful operation that eliminated the takfeeri groups from South Waziristan.
After the two successful operations, Paksitan Army opened de-radicalization centers in tribal areas and Malakand division that helped the terrorism effected people of the tribal areas to get back to their normal livelihood.
While talking to the relatives of the victims of the Parade lane mosque attack, Gen. Kiyani said “Pakistan is our motherland. It is the bastion of Islam. We live and die for the glory of Islam and Pakistan. Our faith, resolve and pride in our religion and in our country is an asset, which is further reinforced after each terrorist incident,”
There was a major shift in the operation priorities of the Pakistan Armed Forces last year, in 2010 Gen. Kiyani said his force would remain an “India Centric” force till the Kashimir issue and water disputed are resolved and there is a strong perception in India that Gen. Kiyani remained a strong hurdle in giving India the status on Most Favorite Nation. But after some time Pakistan Army has changed its operation priories that now sees the internal threats as biggest risk to Pakistan. This includes the TTP groups in tribal areas and some groups operating from Afghanistan as biggest internal threat.
This sift was considered as weakness of Pakistan Army by Indian Army and Indian generals started to beat the drum of war at the eastern border. Tensions were created at the eastern borders and the LoC by the Indian forces.
In a speech on the occasion of the graduation of the 127th Long course if PMA, Gen. Kiyani sent a warning to Indian general’s that had been threatening military action against Pakistan.
Gen. Kiyani said “Pakistan is a peace loving country and our quest for peace is essentially based on a genuine desire to improve our lot and that of our future generations. Let no one see it as a weakness. We have exercised restraint in the face of some very belligerent statement in recent months. Let I suffice to say that Pakistan is fully capable of responding effectively to any threat. Despite our current focus on internal security we remain fully prepared to defeat an external direct threat”.
Many successful rescue operations speak the about the professionalism of Gen. Kiyani. Especially the Gayari Sector Operation that was carried out to take out bodies of shuhada after an avalanche on the world's highest battlefield buried 124 Pakistani soldiers and 11 civilians.
His critics have a big list of the things that Kiyani was not able to do, even some of his critics consider that whatever good things like keeping Army away from the politics he has done was also just because the time that didn’t allowed him to take over the civilian Government. But whatever his critics say or whatever reasons were there behind refraining Army from politics and politicians, it helped a lot to glorify the image of Pakistan Army and laid a great example for the future chiefs of Pakistan Army.
General Kiyani and today’s Pakistan
On November 28- 2013, General Ashfaq Kiyani handed over the responsibilities of Chief of Army Staff to General Raheel Shareef. His critics remember him for Lal Masjid operation, GHQ attack, Mehran base attack, Abbottabad operation, Salal post attack, Kamra base Attack, Raymond Davis and the list goes on. But these incident happen when you are at a war-like situation and an unfortunate front line ally on War on Terror. This happens when you are threatened from eastern-western borders and have internal security problems. But what matters is the reaction and Gen. Kiyani reacted firmly against the terrorist as well as the coalition partners in War on terror. Blockage of NATO/US supply and major changes in the foreign policy were done by the Government on the recommendations of Gen. Kiyani.
It is natural that we will compare the Pakistan of 2007 with the Pakistan that General Kiayani left for us in 2013 after six years as COAS. But we cannot let the highs or Gen. Kiyani and good things that happened to Pakistan in these six years to get overshadowed by the lows of Gen. Kiyani.
Gen. Kiyani, a relatively “quite man” is remembered as “Master Manipulator” by CIA and the man that Americans say they cannot “read”, left a comparatively safer and secure Pakistan for us. He left behind the Army that is trained for unconventional wars and ready to face any internal threat. He left free Swat and comparatively clean Waziristan and FATA. He gave us first democratic transition through ballot box and left behind him a democratic Pakistan. He played an important role in the restoration of Judges and left an independent judiciary for us. He left the tradition of letting democracy blossom in Pakistan for General Raheel Shareef and future COASs. Gen. Kiyani will be remembered as one of the good things that happened to Pakistan at the right time when Pakistan needed the resilience of such an army man as him the most.
Atiq Durrani - is an IT professional and student of Mass Communication. Can be reached at atiq.pkkh@gmail.com and tweets at @SunnyDurrani738
Source: PKKH.tv
