Gen Raheel Sharif: How he changed Pakistan from 'hopeless' to 'hopeful' (his story after Davos)

[Solomon2]

Well it was a difficult decision because there are two mind sets in Pakistan , one still believes that negotiations are the only solution n live in a fool's paradise by relating these terrorists with religion, the other group is of view enough is enough n Aps attack was actually the last hit to it . All we needed is to decide it once n for all that no mercy for anyone in the name of religion . Here we are with least attacks as compared to previous years so the hundred cuts will heal soon as we are on the right track finally

It took too long. Pakistan's state institutions are too weak to act decisively at the early stages of problems. In my judgment that's because the military realizes now it can't operate without some sort of popular support, whereas the politicians either see themselves as subordinate functionaries or are reluctant to endorse military operations because they have so little control over them: not only can they not promote divisional commanders and above, but they cannot remove commanders who act badly or criminal.

Yet one cannot yield the civilians too much power or else you'll have another Z.A.B. or N. Sharif try to elevate himself to dictator.

It's not clear to me how to redress this imbalance but why isn't it being discussed?

 

[nightingale]

Pakistanis think that their army has done a good job in reducing terrorism. Will they acknowledge that Indian Army has done an outstanding job by reducing terrorism in Kashmir to negligible levels from 1990s.

It was such a bad joke I must say As it made me wonder either to laugh or kill myself after reading the post . dude Kashmir issue is addressed at international forums and none thinks that the ppl fighting for freedom there are terrorists and yet u compare it with terrorism in pak , if I weren't sympathetic to humans I would wish to see Isis n taliban in India watching Indian army facing them rather than doing surgical strikes n fighting Kashmiris

Yet one cannot yield the civilians too much power or else you'll have another Z.A.B. or N. Sharif try to elevate himself to dictator.

It's not clear to me how to redress this imbalance but why isn't it being discussed?

I agree that it took much time but we should b happy that finally we realized it after losing many lives .
Now as u urself mentioned the reason of all the problems which is weak institutions but I disagree about not yielding much power to civilians , it's not about Bhutto or nawaz it's about democracy n if u want stronger institutions u will have to give equal powers to all rather than giving all power to ur military howbeit When u say civilians with less power you actually are Imbalancing it.
What is needed to be discussed is role of govt vs opposition n there comes the topics n solutions for most of problems as per my lil knowledge .

 

[Bashido]

Why didn't his predecessor do this?

No one will ever admit that he had done his job which he was supposed to do. Which is in their job SOP's. But his predecessor was busy in heavy corruption and political games. We can say that he was first COAS who has just followed his job description. Not sure about current COAS

 

[Zibago]

No one will ever admit that he had done his job which he was supposed to do. Which is in their job SOP's. But his predecessor was busy in heavy corruption and political games. We can say that he was first COAS who has just followed his job description. Not sure about current COAS

Any proof or just baboon leagi bs by les deplorables?

 

[cmpk]

Unfortunately current COAS is exactly what most of us expected to be like, he was at DHA Lahore office just recently, wasn't in uniform, there he handpicked a plot for himself that he liked, while rest of the officers get a plot via balloting.

Still think we've got one of the best army in the world if not the best, certainly among the finest, but our Generals have let us down on many occasions.

Pak army will never become the best with such Generals, & we need to speak up against such people who ruin our institutions & bring down the morale of officers & jawans. Look how Generals compromised on the issue of Dawn leaks, it is so frustrating.

 

[Solomon2]

No one will ever admit that he had done his job which he was supposed to do.

????

But his predecessor was busy in heavy corruption and political games.

Examples?

We can say that he was first COAS who has just followed his job description.

What is your opinion of General Karamat?

 

[The Eagle]

Thank you for your services Sir. You will be remembered for the efforts and setting the trend more effectively.

 

[Lavrentiy]

Politicians will not own counter-insurgency operations and they are justified in doing so. Why should they own something over which they have no control whatsoever.

You cannot make people responsible for something without authority. The military NEVER listens to politicians in SECURITY MATTERS. Why should politicians take responsibility for SECURITY MATTERS?

The military has done its part in undermining civilian institutions. Now they can't blame these institutions for their incompetence. A country where a PM gets arrested by a 22-grade General is essentially a BANANA REPUBLIC. That's the exact definition of this phrase.

And we do not even have to discuss the role of the military in propping up these terrorist franchises that are now coming back to haunt us. Everyone in this forum knows well the policies of the past.

Even the voters know who controls the security matters and foreign policy; therefore, they would never hold the politicians responsible for them. You can keep on ranting that Nawaz is "Modi ka yaar" but his voters never consider India-Pak relations while voting.

In fact, foreign policy and defence matters are not even minor factors in voting decisions. This is true even for urban voters, let alone rural areas. Thus, politicians are under no compulsion to take ownership of the WoT.

The military desires that politicians take ownership of the mess that they created. Well, that's not gonna happen. The military created this mess and they alone will have to clean up the mess.

 

[Flash_Ninja]

Raheel said the mood changed after the school attack in December 2014, yes. So why did Pakistan, which was already bleeding from a hundred cuts, have to wait that long? Why was it "politically difficult"?

In 2009 we had 11,704 deaths attributed to terrorism. For comparison; Sri Lanka, who were still fighting a civil war had 15,000 deaths that year.

Kiyani sought to resolve this and initiated several military operations but they only brought minor change, and terrorists were still bleeding Pakistan. The nation was essentially demoralized as suicide bombings were happening day in, day out with thousands dying.

2014 was the turning point however, this time the terrorists had gone too far and killed innocent children while they were at school. There was a deep sadness, and this was followed by immense anger as the whole nation rallied around eradicating this cancer once and for all, and so General Sharif backed by his forces, politicians, and the people, ramped up the fight against terrorists, operations against the TTP were fully initiated, the ban on executing terrorists was removed, UAV and air strikes by the Army and Air Force were immediately initiated, and the constitution was amended to allow military courts and speed up the process of convicting and punishing terrorists.

The success of this operation is very much evident since fatalities have seen a 67% drop in casualties to only 1,800 deaths in 2016.

In my opinion, if the whole nation wasn't united as it was and an operation was launched then it would have resulted in much more casualties, as well as instability that could have led to some kind of civil war taking place. Morale is an incredible tool for forces to secure victory, and it is only with our determination to end the jihadist cancer that we were able to win.

 

[Solomon2]

In my opinion, if the whole nation wasn't united as it was and an operation was launched then it would have resulted in much more casualties, as well as instability that could have led to some kind of civil war taking place. Morale is an incredible tool for forces to secure victory, and it is only with our determination to end the jihadist cancer that we were able to win.

How horrid that the killing of children was thought necessary before such an operation could take place; it highlights a very high threshhold for terrorist violence in Pakistan.

 

[Tiger Genie]

I thought you're gonna write something serious but nope we can't expect anything sensible from delusional indians like you this guy is responsible for reducing terrorism by over 50% in my country this guy is a reason why Karachi is much much safer now this guy cleared our northern areas infested by the foreign funded cockroaches but yea he is also responsible for butt hurt of our neighbors who can't see a prosperous terrorism free Pakistan. He has done a lot to remove terrorism from my country and he really don't need any certificates from indians like you. Reported for writing BS.

It is pretty serious stuff but you don't want to accept the truth. As I said he was a lucky bloke who kept his mouth shut and did the best he could under the circumstances. Happy now?

The problem is, in such senior leadership positions, mediocre 'didn't damage any further' kind of work is not enough. He should have shown some courage and tried to actually wean the military establishment away from their terrorism culture - but he did not and instead opted to just bomb the lower rungs.

And the level of pain I can see in your posts for Pakistan army and its general shows that they are doing something right or else why someone like Indians would hate him. In fact they have done all the things right. Particularly in kicking and killing your proxies in Pakistan.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/pakistan-is-winning-its-war-on-terror/

I know it hurts to see your proxies dying a slow death. They are the real soldiers for you since the guys in the Indian military are busy complaining about their daal and roti.

Cyril's article didn't burst anything for me. It didn't change anything for me or neither for my army. It had no impact here. Yeah it might have given something to you bharatis to masturbate upon. More delusions to you bharatis to live in if already existing delusions weren't enough. He didn't need to do anything to India. He was needed to answer every Indian aggression which he did with perfection, He was so good that your military was forced to do a drama of surgical strike to save some face.

He changed a lot of things for Pakistan and all of them are positive and that is what matters to me. Being a bharati you should be more worried about the joker ruling your country than commenting about ex army chief of Pakistan. The same joker of Gujarat that was banned to visit the country that you adopted after you ran away from India.

such denial is indicative of your disappointment over your failure as a nation in so many aspects - Pakistan after so many decades still is unable to stand on its own and is able to survive only due to its affiliations. Until a few years ago, a slave of the USA who could at whim come inside and bomb your country; and now China. You are beset with religious violence; you have no credibility with any of the regional neighbors nor in most of the globe. Heck, you cannot even get a decent cricket team to come play without your jihadi nuts spraying bullets on them. And when you see India forging ahead in trade, economy, technology, global political affluence all within the chaotic democratic wonder, it is easy to understand why people like you get jealous and start barking and foaming.

Most Indians I speak with nowadays seem to pity you guys rather than even make fun of you.

 

[The Sandman]

It is pretty serious stuff but you don't want to accept the truth. As I said he was a lucky bloke who kept his mouth shut and did the best he could under the circumstances. Happy now?

The problem is, in such senior leadership positions, mediocre 'didn't damage any further' kind of work is not enough. He should have shown some courage and tried to actually wean the military establishment away from their terrorism culture - but he did not and instead opted to just bomb the lower rungs.



such denial is indicative of your disappointment over your failure as a nation in so many aspects - Pakistan after so many decades still is unable to stand on its own and is able to survive only due to its affiliations. Until a few years ago, a slave of the USA who could at whim come inside and bomb your country; and now China. You are beset with religious violence; you have no credibility with any of the regional neighbors nor in most of the globe. Heck, you cannot even get a decent cricket team to come play without your jihadi nuts spraying bullets on them. And when you see India forging ahead in trade, economy, technology, global political affluence all within the chaotic democratic wonder, it is easy to understand why people like you get jealous and start barking and foaming.

Most Indians I speak with nowadays seem to pity you guys rather than even make fun of you.

You know i feel bad for indians like you who're still delusional your media and govt have fed you guys with so much false and anti Pak/Pak army propaganda for such a long time that now you just think rationally any rational you can't make rational opinions on your own these same old sentences that you guys keep parroting about my country and it's army these hate filled comments that you guys just keep writing the frustration and obsession you've with us is just an evidence of that i am really really feeling bad for you and i am just surprised that how much damage propaganda can do to brains of millions of people. Take care man and May God help you guys in fact only he can help you now because your gov and media has done an irreparable damage to you people. sigh.

 

[Musafir117]

We are not interested in winning hearts of muslims.

Your backyard is burning coz we killed few thousands rats funded by RAW, take off your khaki chaddi and smell the sxit.

 

[AntiToxic]

It is pretty serious stuff but you don't want to accept the truth. As I said he was a lucky bloke who kept his mouth shut and did the best he could under the circumstances. Happy now?

The problem is, in such senior leadership positions, mediocre 'didn't damage any further' kind of work is not enough. He should have shown some courage and tried to actually wean the military establishment away from their terrorism culture - but he did not and instead opted to just bomb the lower rungs.



such denial is indicative of your disappointment over your failure as a nation in so many aspects - Pakistan after so many decades still is unable to stand on its own and is able to survive only due to its affiliations. Until a few years ago, a slave of the USA who could at whim come inside and bomb your country; and now China. You are beset with religious violence; you have no credibility with any of the regional neighbors nor in most of the globe. Heck, you cannot even get a decent cricket team to come play without your jihadi nuts spraying bullets on them. And when you see India forging ahead in trade, economy, technology, global political affluence all within the chaotic democratic wonder, it is easy to understand why people like you get jealous and start barking and foaming.

Most Indians I speak with nowadays seem to pity you guys rather than even make fun of you.

I thought Musharaf was a big FENKU............this general beats him hands down..

 

[Taxzu]

Raheel Sherief was a lucky bloke to have come into power just around the time Pakistanis were in a state to meekly accept serious bombings within their country by their own military, the alternative being more bombs by the US. IMO he walked the tight rope between too much bombing which would have set of the jihadi support factions of ISI & military and the national mood to see reduced US bombings.

Importantly, unlike his predecessors, he kept his mouth shut most of the times, thus letting others, especially cyber scribes attribute greatness to him every time Nawas Sheriff bungled (of which there were numerous occasions). And MOST importantly, he had the sense to resist calls for yet another coup in Pakistan even though there seemed to be widespread public support for ouster of Nawas Sherieff.

Given his popularity, he failed to exploit it in several areas - for example, he could have done a lot to remove terrorist sanctuaries inside Pakistan that were used to export terrorism into India and Afghanistan. He also failed miserably in supporting some initiatives that the civilian leaders signaled for peace with India, probably in accommodation of pressures from his fellow generals.

Dear the operation was directed towards the area which the whole world considers sanctuaries for taliban and other terrorist organisation. And he did clear all those areas and all those moved to Afghanistan. And Taliban or Haqqani group dont need any sanctuary in Pakistan since they control several provinces in afghanistan. As to freedom fighters who fight for kashmir you should appreciate Pakistan's efforts since you dont see many attacks and Pakistan has controlled them.