Daily Times

Dear Sir,

Soon you will be crowned as the next most powerful person of Pakistan. While congratulating you on this historic occasion, I am deliberately avoiding the term oath-taking to denote the official transfer of power from the former to the future chief of army staff (COAS). With some reluctance, I want to call it coronation to pay my respect; however, people whose minds have been corrupted with the Western style democracy would then steal my idea and dishonor it meanings of their own choice.

These pseudo-intellectuals believe your position reflects unlimited powers and independence of a medieval monarch, a post in which fear of public backlash does not exist, and an appointment where government or judicial reprimand is out of question. I do not agree with them. On the contrary, I believe you as the COAS represent the combined conscience, the collective good will and wisdom of our nation, an honour for all Pakistanis.

An oath-taking ceremony is reserved for ordinary, good-for-nothing civilians, sir, like the prime minister, the Supreme Court judges or the democratically elected president of Pakistan. Your acquisition of military command means much more for the country than just an election or a simple nomination. It is a game changer for the nation, a new direction, a revolution, an era of modernity based on Islamic principles, a time of peace and prosperity, and of victories and conquests. So, under no circumstances we should disrespect this prodigious cosmological alignment by comparing it with routine administrative or procedural events.

After making myself clear on that, I must say that we have to make some adjustments in our national discourse after your appointment has been finalised. First of all, your predecessor (once he retires) needs to be blacked out of media as if he never existed. Yet if a news channel insists on acknowledging his existence, it has to evaluate his performance with a grain of salt. Here, I want to insist that the grain of salt must be a big one. Why? Because the real renaissance has just now knocked at our doorsteps through you.

Truth be told, during the last three years we spent most of our time thanking the outgoing general for everything he did as a part of his duty, which now looks like a big mistake. For instance, if he went to the office in the morning, we thanked him. If he signed routine files, we thanked him. If he met foreign dignitaries, we thanked him. If he visited the Line of Control, we thanked him. If he addressed the passing-out parade at a military academy, we thanked him. If he avoided politics, we thanked him. And if he decided to get involved indirectly, we thanked him on hat too. If he intervened in judicial matters through army courts we thanked him, and if he did not, we thanked him even more. We thanked him for saving Pakistan through the military operation in the North Waziristan (NWA) the same way we thanked his predecessor for saving Pakistan by not conducting a military action in the NWA.

In short, as long as he stayed in power we performed our duty to stay loyal to him, but now in your person we have a much better option. Patriotism demands that we adjust our preferences and move our loyalties. As such, I want to show my indebtedness to you in advance for accepting this responsibility and providing me the honour to acknowledge your eminence in public. I also express my gratitude for all you are going to do for our country to ‘make it great again’ way before you have done that. Thank you, General.

Sir, as soon as you are promoted, a group of people would call you a professional soldier, a gold medalist, winner of multiple trophies and the author of new war strategies. I have no doubt that you have accomplished all that. My point, sir, is that I think you are a great soldier, a talented general and a true role model despite these trophies and medals not because of them. I believe in you, sir, not in a metallic cup or a gold-plated coin.

Also, sir, soon after your predecessor vacates the office, a debate will erupt about your extension like people are arguing on the extension of the current COAS. I think, logically speaking, the whole discussion is a waste of time. It could have made some sense if we were talking about a regular, good-for-nothing civilian post, but here we are discussing the future of Pakistan. We are in a state of war in which we encounter problems that sometimes can only be solved by going beyond the limitations that exist only on paper. Understanding that, I propose only you and you alone can decide for how long the country needs to be protected. The number of years do not matter, sir, when our existence is endangered.

Yours truly.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com