Daily Times

Finally it’s dead and buried; thank God. It was indeed a very sordid, ugly tale.

It all started in October last year when demands for an extension in the term of the then Chief of Army Staff, General (retd) Raheel Sharif, were being made by the public and, perhaps, someone wanted to find a way to tarnish his [and the Army’s] image.

The attempt at manipulating the media was so obvious that even when he originally reported the leak, Cyril Almeida commented that it was “orchestrated”.

The leak was worded such that the reported rebuke to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general and the National Security Adviser (NSA) was actually intended for the Army in general and the then chief in particular.

Furthermore, the rebuke tended to imply that terrorists in the Punjab and of Punjabi origin were being allowed to run free because they were ‘assets’ of the ISI and that this decision was jointly taken by the Army and the ISI. A [possible, but] manifestly false accusation at the time.

The ISI and the Army had, in the past, colluded to protect people and organisations they considered useful to fight a greater enemy; that was why the accusation was believable. However, I am fairly certain that under Raheel Sharif’s command, the Army’s decision to eliminate terrorists in Pakistan was intended to be indiscriminate and that terrorists in the Punjab were not feeling the wrath of the Army’s crackdown because of political pressure from those reported in the leak to have made the complaint.

The Army was angry and Raheel wanted blood.

Ultimately, and once again, I believe that a bargain was necessary and was reached. For immediate pacification, a minister was sacked and a Joint Investigation Team(JIT) ordered.

It took the JIT seven months to conclude its probe. But, this time the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to, quietly, take action only against the ‘expendables’; perhaps hoping that the new chief would be a softer touch. It turned out that he might be an even harder nut to crack than his predecessor. But, the military spokesman, in his enthusiasm, used a most inappropriate word. He “rejected” the PM’s announcement.

Mr. Sharif has the unique privilege of having selected five Army chiefs, including one who held his rank for only a few hours. I am quite certain that the PM would disagree but, in fact, his selection record is very good. Apart from Gen (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf, the PM’s other choices have ranged from fairly good to excellent. In my view his best choices have been first and the last two – like I said, I am sure the PM will not concur. But that is because all his choices were made for the wrong reasons. Mr. Sharif has sought personal loyalty or the least threatening individuals, instead of those best suited for the job.

If he ever had to make another selection and, on that occasion, decided to pick the right man for the job; I wonder how the Army and the nation would fare.

Thus, the ISPR’s’rejection’ really threw a spanner in the works and people again began to conjecture that Pakistan may witness another military takeover; the word did indeed seem like a threat, though it was probably not intended to be so.

This resulted in some more ‘huddles’ among the power brokers and, finally, the chief and PM met again. Once again, a bargain was reached; though we may not discover its contents for some time to come.

Whatever the remaining agreements reached might be; the Army retracted its ‘rejection’. I was quite sorry for the poor spokesman who manfully accepted his error and “withdrew” the Army’s rejection; a ‘withdrawal’ is not something any Army wishes to acknowledge.

I must say, even without knowing details, it was a mature, sensible, and pragmatic ending to an episode that could easily have been avoided by one party and much better handled by the other.

For the PM, this third – and hopefully the last- term in office has been the most turbulent. Between his own paranoia, Pakistan Tehrik Insaf chief Imran Khan, the Army, and international and domestic turbulence – I doubt if he has enjoyed many of the hearty meals he is reputed to like.

But then, much of it has been his own doing.

Domestic political uncertainty is the last thing Pakistan needs as it is already engaged in a war within and is faced with increasingly hostile neighbours and an increasingly unstable and unpredictable world.

So, let’s thank the Almighty that at least one cause for insecurity has ceased to threaten.

But the PTI chief is relentless in his search for the succulent bone on the PM’s chair. Conscious that he is most unlikely to be elected to the PM’s office, he will continue seeking for any source – domestic or foreign – which may help him get ‘selected’ for that office, irrespective of the institutional and incidental damage caused in the process.

And the paranoid, inept, spineless government of the PML-N will continue, alternately, clutching at straws or waving conspiracies, or chasing their own shadows in the dark while Pakistan merrily ‘trudges along’ whatever path comes its way.

The writer is a retired brigadier. He is also former vice president and founder of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)