General Raheel Sharif’s retirement has been one of the most talked about affairs in the country lately. Even when the general has said that he does not desire to hold on to the position of chief of army staff after his tenure is over, some elements keep reopening the topic. A few months ago, posters appeared on the roads of Karachi and other cities of Pakistan in which a little-known political party, Move on Pakistan, asked General Raheel Sharif to forget about leaving.
There is a general impression that the momentum Sharif has created to combat homegrown terrorism might be affected if he leaves in the middle of the war on terror. There is no denying that since the start of Zarb-e-Azb and its subsequent extension into different parts of Pakistan, especially Karachi, incidents of terrorism have gone sharply down. The enemy being well-prepared does return with some brutal attacks though; the Quetta incident is one example where almost an entire generation of lawyers have been wiped out. However, peace has returned to the life of the common man.
The greatest feat has been the respite in Karachi. The credit goes to the Pakistan Rangers and the army. After the Army Public School attack, there was a consensus to take the Karachi operation and Zarb-e-Azb to their logical end. Some hard decisions, which should have been taken by the Sindh government, were made directly by the Rangers. Financial corruption that was feeding into terrorism has been severed at the source with the arrest of some big politicians such as Dr Asim Hussain and his likes in the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
The disintegration of the MQM because of Karachi operation’s tentacles reaching the party’s militant wing significantly contributed to peace in Karachi. But saying that the MQM has been completely cleansed would be an exaggeration. Even for terrorism, it cannot be said that it has been entirely curtailed. Terror financing too has not been incapacitated so far. It is these apprehensions that have fed into the fear that the change of guard at this time would affect our war on terrorism.
Army is an institution the country is proud of because of its discipline and organisation. Often the reason for army’s takeover of the civilian rule has been attributed to military’s discipline and its internal cohesion. However, the fear that something unusual would fall off the sky if Raheel Sharif disappears at this time does not hold true. In fact, the time is probably ripe to set the tradition right. Pervez Musharraf being the president of Pakistan remained the COAS for two consecutive terms. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani also remained in power twice in a row. And now asking Raheel Sharif to walk the same path would mean that the Pakistan army has generals working in isolation of any policy. It is the policy that must be followed and not personalities.
We have experienced this drawback in the civilian set-up. The discontinuity of policies at the exit of the ruling party had always added to the woes of investment and economic milieu of the country. It is unfortunate though that every ruling party, barring the last one, had been pushed out of power on the allegation of corruption. It was the first time in 2013 that one civilian government handed down power to another without disquiet.
General Kayani, at the last leg of his tenure, made some interesting remarks about homegrown terrorism. He said we needed to look inward to find the enemy. The threat had been identified living within us not without. Sure enough, we could not get away from the mindset that India is our enemy, and it would leave no stone unturned to undo Pakistan. A truism to some extent. The enigma that needs consideration and unravelling lies with the political elite and the intelligentsia that collides with the forces outside to weaken the state. It baffles the mind when MQM’s involvement with RAW unfolds after 37 years of its existence. The party has been involved in all sorts of crimes ever since its existence. Until it suited the ruling elite — both from the military and the civilians — to keep MQM safe, no head rolled. With General Raheel Sharif in the driving seat, the trend changed. More visibility was given to the cause of finding the right culprit. He made no compromises. Neither did he allow the political leadership to make any concession. One reason could be the holistic approach the army had taken against all political forces involved in corruption. MQM’s argument that it was exclusively targeted wasn’t well taken. In fact, their wages of sin were far greater than of all the political forces combined.
Our focus should not be on the indispensability of General Raheel Sharif but on making policies to counter the challenges and taking benefits from the opportunities the region offers. The real test would, however, lie in combining the diplomatic and military strengths to counter the threat faced on the western and eastern borders.
The writer is a journalist. She can be reached at [email protected]