Moeed Pirzada has an avowedly pro-PTI narrative so everything that comes from him has to be considered from this PoV. It might as well be Imran Riaz Khan stating these things. I wrote to MP a few times and then he stopped responding since I countered some of the things he said and my critique wasn't even anti-PTI and pro-chorrs, mind you!
What is missed out by MP is that Pakistan's military looks at Pakistan pragmatically and not from the lens of "feel good" optics. China has and will remain Pakistan's partner and that is not up to Gen Bajwa or anyone else to change. However, the US is just as important based on what follows below. Our urge has always been to show up as a stupidly jilted lover who goes from one love to another just because the first one has rejected us. So when things tighten up with the Americans, we run to the Russians and Chinese like idiots and our leadership starts making stupid statements as well. When nothing is forthcoming from Russians, we run back to the Americans and likewise between KSA, Iran and Turkiye etc. this pendulum keeps on swinging. This is a classic case of how not to manage FP.
The issue is, what is Pakistan to do with massive external dependencies on the US/West and International Monetary Institutions (IMI)? China has not been and cannot be a replacement for any of these at least in the near future (I say out to 10-15 years if its growth is not interrupted). China's model has not been like that of the US where, an an example, the latter funds Israel with direct $s for economic and military aid. Our bad habits and mis-governance compounds whatever Chinese or even Americans do for Pakistan.
On top of this, even Pakistan's traditional partners in the Middle East are not willing to support Pakistan (this was happening in PTI's time so don't assign this as a problem for the incumbents) financially if Pakistan is not in a formal program with Western backed IMIs.
So anyone, including MP, playing this as Gen Bajwa's anti-China, pro-US card is lying to the Pakistani public and what is disappointing is in that he knows better but in the interest of politics, chooses to whittle down this complex topic to Gen Bajwa's preferences. Pakistan's military/establishment's outlook is not decided by the CoAS, it is by the entire senior leadership of the armed forces.
From a purely military lens, our armed forces prefer western gear due to its high-tech value and quality (specially the US origin one), vs. Chinese which is relatively simple and more limited in terms of capabilities. Chinese too realize this, thus they are constantly copying US design (let's keep national pride out of this). Perhaps Chinese require another 10-20 years to have even more high-tech capabilities but the US largess to Pakistan and the infusion of technology as well as offers of training officers in more modern combat concepts (which the Chinese greatly lack as they do not venture beyond their domain unlike the expeditionary Americans) are things that have to be considered for Pakistan to defend itself against an enormous India.
Lastly, CPEC should be accelerated and returns should have already been realized, but let's also accept that there were spoilers before Gen Bajwa and there are spoilers now after Gen Bajwa's tenure because quite a few countries/entities are against this project. Gen Bajwa stood up an entire division to protect the Chinese workers but then they were targeted inside our cities. What can the military possibly do about these types of actions by foreign funded terrorists? So challenges abound, I think it is sort of unfair to lay them on the feet of one person only.
Gen Bajwa made plenty of mistakes. I am no fan of his (given the harm done to the army in his tenure) but I also believe there should be fairness in critique and in this regard, PTI is on the looney end. If I recall correctly, at one time, he was PTI's darling (kha makhwa sir pay charhaiya General sahib ko PTI leadership nay by giving him an extension aur phir uss kay baat aap rotay ho aur uss hi kay nuqs nikaltay ho), where is your responsibility in all of this?
