Purpose of this essay is to identify grave threats to Pakistan army and Gen. Sharif, and hopefully start a debate as to how to address and neutralize these. Please note! These threats are a mix of religious, political, social, and geographical. And NO! we cannot solve these just be threatening them or nuking them. They all need distinct solutions tailored very specifically and delivered in very carefully optimized dosage. So here is the summary list:
1. Threats from Pakistani politicians
--- a. Altaf Hussain (MQM)
--- b. Asif Zardari (PPP)
--- c. Imran Khan (PTI)
--- d. Nawaz Sharif (PMLN)
2. Threats from bad economy
3. Threats from religious extremism
4. External threats.
Achilles heel of Pakistan Army (Gen. Sharif)
We in Pakistan are all excited and overjoyed (for the right reasons) about the triumphs and successes of our army and in particular Gen. Sharif. May God bless him with good health and long life. Amen.
Gen. Sharif's (and Pakistan army’s) lightening attack on the Talib-astard TTP has resulted in almost 100% route of gangs from Waziristan. Few pockets do remain hidden in the thick forests and steep mountains close to Pak-Af border. But the unchallenged reign of terror by the Islamists gangs has ended rather quickly.
Such a grand success was unparalleled in the region which generally known as "graveyard of empires" or more precisely "graveyard of invading armies".
Such successes would not have been possible without modern methods of warfighting and modern weapons that support the army. Primarily such weapons provide air support nay air superiority and include F-16, Cobra gunships, and transport helicopters of various kinds.
On the ground, US provided some excellent mine resistant troop carriers that have allowed Pakistan army to go in areas where no militaries have gone before at least not in large numbers.
Pakistanis while praising Pak army and Gen. Sharif must figure out the weaknesses of Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.
1. Threats from Four politicians (political parties) of Pakistan
Yes, my friends, if Pak army makes mistakes (like in the past), 4 politicians as a group or even individuals could do serious damage to Pakistan army if not (God forbid) bring it down to its knees. All of these politicians have had access to Pakistan Army's inner most secrets one time or the other. And such secrets are now being used to threaten and blackmail Pakistan army.
1A - Altaf Hussain
First on this black list, is none other than the Mafioso superemo head of Mohajir (Muttahida) nationalist movement. General Musharraf in his mad plans of destroying two main political parties of his time: PLMN and PPP made foolish deals with many smaller parties including MQM. While these parties provided much needed political support to Gen Retd Musharraf, they extracted from him very heavy price in return. MQM got free hand to attack, harass and then kill many law enforcement officers posted in Urban Sindh. This obviously is well known. What MQM did during the same time is acquire knowledge of Pakistan army's inner working by using few generals sympathetic to MQM cause. As a result, such secrets were either have been kept with MQM or portions have been revealed to Bharati intelligence. By mixing MQM's ground support and the secret knowledge, Altaf Hussain can do serious damage to Pakistan army. So when he makes threats, we must not ignore him.
1B - Asif Zardari
Even though AZ's party has been in the dog house for most of its existence. However PPP learned its lessons and started cozying up to Pakistan army during the last 20 years or so. Such a long period is enough to acquire loyalty of few retired officers and get access to inner working of Pakistan army. Asif Zardari and his minions like Hussain Haqqani have now acquired enormous clout and wealth within and outside Pakistan. And when he made that madman speech recently and said he can destroy Pakistan army (eent say eent baja dain-gay), and shut down Pakistan, he was NOT kidding. He was damned serious. And believe you me, he has put the wheels in motion and he is working on his plans. In some ways he is as munch dangerous to Pakistan army as Altaf Hussain if not more. He can use his secret knowledge of Pakistan army to humiliate Gen. Sharif and bring about the wrath of international condemnation and action against Pakistan army. I suspect he has already done something similar but didn't get enough traction through memo-gate and Bin laden type raids.
Recent leakage of secrets about Afghan Taliban's weaknesses could have been done by few who are close to Asif Zardari (possible people may include Rahman, and Haqqani).
1C - Imran Khan
Yes, Immmi Khan is immature. Yes he has a lot of appeal among youngsters, yes he set up hospitals. Yes he has an ambitious and good looking second wife.
But the biggest danger from Immi Khan comes from his deeply held belief that TTP are good guys and we should negotiate with them. Such views have been expressed by him even in July 2015. We should not consider these things as mere rants of childish bonga man. No! Immie Khan means business. He will and he is supporting TTP elements even at this stage. No! Not the dreaded supremo Fazlullah but many elements of TTP that are still hiding in various parts of KP-K province where Immie Khan controls the civilian admn and law enforcement agencies.
If you couple such secret deals between TTP and Immi khan, with his political force strong enough to destabilize Pakistan, you will know that he can do serious damage to Gen. Sharif. Recent leakage of secrets about Afghan Taliban could have been done by few who are close to Immie Khan. Possible people may include Shirin Mazari.
1D - Nawaz Sharif
Last but not least, Nawaz Sharif being a Punjabi, means that he has sympathies and direct familial relationship with many top generals. He has been toppled twice in the past Once indirectly by Pak army and once directly by General retd Musharraf. He still carries all those wounds in his heart and in his soul. Yes he has covered such things with a diplomatic cover but his nightmares about Pakistan army are very real. If you couple these with the fact that his close associates like Khawaja Asif and even Pervaiz Rasheed have had been tortured during the past military rules, you got a group of top politicians around Nawaz who will not waste time expressing their deep seeded hatred against Pakistan army in their words and in their actions. So far Nawaz Sharif enjoys a finely balanced relationship with Gen. Sharif. But the situation resulting from Immi Khan's dharna may have added more to his past nightmares.
If push comes to shove, and threatened by NAB etc., Nawaz may not want to be kicked out to Saudi this time. So he will stay in Pakistan like a cornered cat and may do some serious damage to Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.
2. Pakistan economy
Economy is the Achilles heel of any army and yes Pakistan army too. Our defense budget is tiny tiny tiny compared to the budgets (in relative terms) of our immediate AND hostile neighbor(s). This has put serious strain on Pakistan army. Just providing food and fuel, ammo and parts for operations carried out daily means literally burning precious dollars from the meager reserves held in state bank (and other banks).
Yes many on PDF will jump with joys everytime there is news of Pakistan army acquiring weapon system X or weapon system Y. But remember this! All such acquisitions are made using hard earned dollars (and IMF/WB loan dollars).
Yes we do not have printing presses in the basement that will give us an internationally accepted currency. So we have to beg and borrow money to buy few helicopters here, and few guns there.
Unless Pakistanis settle down as a nation and support Pakistan army with their hands and feet (and not just mouths), and earn dollars through tourism, and industry, we cannot go much longer with current amount of dollar reserve.
3. Religion extremism within army ranks
This fortunately is on the decline as fewer and fewer officers are supporting overtly Islamist symbols like beards etc. But it has come at very very heavy price for Pakistani army and Pakistan. Gen. Ziaul Haq’s planted little sapling of Islamism back in late 1970s. By 1980s and 90s it became a tall dastardly tree whole prickly thorns penetrated deep into Pakistani state institutions including army.
How else it became possible for the Islamists to enter and then attack extremely sensitive installations and offices without any resistance at all. Our AWACS, and our P-3s and even our GHQ wasn’t safe from Islamists. Islamists gangsters walked into these sensitive areas as if they were walking into Anarkali Lahore or Sadar bazar Karachi. That is no one was there to stop them. None at all.
These Islamists bombed our police academies, or FIA centers with no one stopping them. None of our “top of the world” intel agencies could stop them. This was only possible because our intel agencies themselves had been infected with extremist elements all in the name of Islamism.
After the APS attack, many among our security establishment finally woke up to the dastardly effects of Islamist extremism. But a year later, some of the things are still in favor of Islamist.
Lal Masjid burqaposh Mullah is still busy threatening everyone and anyone. Islamist like the one who murdered Punjab governor is still enjoying royal treatement and cell phone access even within the max security prison.
So many Taliban extremists and other Islamists have been pardoned by our courts and saved by their sympathizers within the security establishment. Thus Islamist extremism remains potent threat and in some ways Achilles heel for Pak army and thus by extension Gen. Sharif.
4. External threats.
I'll not write much about this. We all know we have enemies within Bharati gov planners. We all know there are remnants within Afghanistani security establishment that would love to burn down their OWN country so long as Pakistan army suffers. We all know Iranian Ayatollahs will never forget their failure to "Shia-ize Pakistan" since 1979. And instead Pakistani has become hotbed of anti-Shia forces since 1980s.
Hatred based on Shia Sunni divide is strong among Iranian Mullahs, that they can potentially do everything possible to bring down Pakistan army and by extension Gen. Sharif.
So my friends, now we know what the weaknesses of Pakistani army are, how do we address them?
Think, think, and think, as a Pakistan first. No, we don't need more religion, and more ethnic chauvinism. These are always counterproductive.
Rather we must support ways that Pakistan army can win at home, but more importantly Pakistan army could become a stabilizing force outside Pakistan all the way from Afghanistan to Iran to Syria. Where gangs like Daesh and Qaida must be crushed and peace be brought to humanity.
This is the only way forward, to earn good will of international citizenry and thus help us improve tourism and trade within Pakistan.
We must shame our politicians (listed above) everytime they do and say anything stupid against Pakistan army, and by extension Gen. Sharif. This is the way to save our beautiful country.
Let's join hands and be positive and be brave.
Amen
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. So you ok with majority of previous Generals, NS, IK, Zardari and Mullahs getting hanged??? I'd love to see your input on this. Let's see if your law is for ALL or just the one you hate, i.e. NS.
