He was not following any wrong orders; he is only explaining that Musharraf the god made decision without taking his Corp Commanders into confidence. Obviously he was not asked to let the Americans take over Shamsi. He would have followed wrong decision if he was a base commander of Shamsi Base or if he was someone who had anything to do with the Shamsi base etc. He did resign and showed his character when Musharraf the god asked him not to follow up the cases against BB. So there is no issue with this guy, he seems like an upright and honest officer.
Once there was a report about four SSG folks who were abducted and later killed by the TTP. There was news that those folks killed ten TTP guys before embracing shahdat, and I asked in that thread about the proof. None of you (who are thanking posts after posts on this media-bashing franzy) ever come forward and tried to demarcate between "Investigative Journalism" and "A publicity stunt" or did you? Who knows if they managed to kill even one of their captives or they lost their lives helplessly? What would you say about that hypothetical killing of the ten TTP folks in the hands of four SSGs? At that time media was all right and doing great job right?
Lets take the latest incidence of the TTPs alleged ‘Jannat’; the field commanders and Mr. Malik are claiming that the compound was the alleged ‘jannat’. Fine, have you guys seen the video posted in the related thread? From which angle that compound looks like a ‘jannat’? Painting few sceneries on the walls made it ‘Jannat’? Where are the streams of milk and honey that were reported in the media who simply reproduced what they were told by the field commanders and Mr. Malik? Only a mentally retard can believe that the compound was Jannat. Now where is your "Investigative Journalism" versus "A publicity stunt"? Everything is fine if it suits your purpose but if it does not, all of a sudden it becomes a case of publicity stunt?
Salaams qsaark,
I for one am very happy that our media is covering every possible angle...there are many sharks in the media but overall due to the competition there are many unprecedented positives here...however in this time there are many people who are making a business out of the sensationalism which has gripped the nation...
Our concern is that military has taken quite solid steps and kayani pulled back all the generals serving outside Army to make things better.
However some sort of check should be implemented on these retired generals to not add fuel to the fire...they cannot simply resurrect corpses from the graves to gain personal fame...if they are willing to unearth the buried skeleton then that should be in a manner to reach a conclusion...not to achieve cheap fame.
Regarding the SSG men, i personally messaged you and told you a few things.
Even in the thread Blain2 made it clear that it is not certain or may not be true that they killed 10 TTP men, but they were brave soldiers who fought till the bitter end.
For the record Capt Najam suffered hundreds (not exaggeration) of cuts, bruises and burns and his body was mutilated as a result of a very fierce fight in which he too would have turned a head or two.
These men were outnumbered probably a hundred to one and yet did not go down submissively, so whether they killed one, ten or even zero TTP was not the point.
The point was that they were defiant as proud Pakistanis and that they were martyred which is a fact and that is what mattered to us or at least to the likes of Blain, Xeric and myself.
Anyways, enough said about that.
Anything Mr. Malik says becomes a question mark for us but the Jannat concept of these Kharjis is a few months indoctrination in which the child is psychologically broken down and fed on the description of paradise and the houres...the indoctrination can include all sorts of motivational and intimidating videos, pictures etc...it is a proper course which the terrorist run the poor children through in order to make them submit to their will.
The use of drugs is also very common in this phase.
All in all it is a very cold blooded thing and the child of 12-15 years has no sympathetic ear to turn to...
Regarding the General in question, the Core Commanders are not that ill informed nor are they supposed to say yes to everything.
I think the General in question did not even register any form of criticism.
However if a general feels that national integrity is at stake then he should resign, it is really that simple even if it seems primitive.
It is the military and he had to obey orders so there is no other choice really, but then what did he have to lose?
Not much because his rank already ensured a comfortable life ahead.
Still he did not resign so it seems he was ok with everything till his retirement.
Please note that they are not people like us who need to save their jobs.
First of all their jobs are nearly end of the line with few years remaining only, also they have reached a point in their career where retirement is quite pleasant really and not full of hardship as the life of a retired Col or Major would be....
So these Generals had the support of Allah in the form of benefits had they chosen to do what they now see as the right thing...they knew what US was asking of us when it wanted logistical support...even if i believe that Musharraf did not declare everything in the open, these Generals were the generation of officers who saw our entire nation and armed forces suffer because of US sanctions, due to this they knew there is a severe trust issue between the two governments.
At the end of the day they either agreed with Musharraf or they did not disagree with him...had they disagreed with him openly they would have retired and would have won the respect of Army.
This has been done by generals in the past.
In 71 Gen Sahibzada Yaqoub was given command of east Pakistan and he was one of the finest officers of our army and later became one of the best foreign ministers we ever had.
He did not accept the order of military action in east Pakistan since he saw that as a serious threat to national integrity and resigned.
His life did not end, he is respected as a great figure and serves as an example of what to do when your conscience does not see eye to eye with your orders.
Now if these generals openly apologize for their own guilt (which they do not) when they accuse Musharraf of the same then i do not have any issue from moral point of view.
However from disciplinary point of view i will still not like it.
I would rather have a setup that if a General or former minister/official accuses the past government or high command then an inquiry should be held by the Supreme Court and the person shall be legally obliged to not say anything till the inquiry is concluded.
If he is proven wrong then his rank or any benefits shall be taken back and he shall suffer in shame.
If he is proven right then justice will be served and he would have redeemed himself.
If this unaccounted public mudslinging is allowed to happen then without any check then it may come to pass that we see open commentaries on issues which are confidential and not open for public consumption due to security risks and lack of information...
Why i say this?
Because we always see a lot of brave words in hindsight but never do these conscientious people ever take the accused to the court.
Their words are taken as fact but pass through no further scrutiny, in a nation beset with many problems this is something that can further damage the national fiber and has to be realized and checked.
Such serious implications should automatically be taken notice of by the judiciary as part of a national security/integrity law which needs to be devised in my humble opinion.
It is time that the value of someones words should be weighed in the court of law...
What say you all?
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