By Mosharraf Zaidi in The News, Nov 29, 2022
The writer is an analyst and commentator
……….It would be nice to be able to say that Pakistan is turning the page today as a new chief of army staff (COAS) takes command in Rawalpindi. Such naivete may be forgivable for those with a memory that is shorter than six years. For all other Pakistanis, it is not only not possible to turn the page so easily, but it may also be objectionable to do so. For starters, to turn a page, one must be able to find it. The ‘same page’ that was advertised so breathlessly by both Imran Khan and those in Rawalpindi that helped make him prime minister in 2018 was ripped to shreds as Khan allowed the PMO and an orchestra of fawning sycophants get to his head……….
What is the corollary then for a post-doctrine Pakistan? If Back to the Future has taught us anything, it should teach us this: we cannot undo what has been done. There is not enough Samad Bond in all of Pakistan that can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. We are here and now, and it is a worse place than the country was in when this journey began in 2016. This is the kindest articulation of the political manipulation, public discourse contamination, electoral compromises and ingress into civilian matters that has manufactured the current polycrisis that Pakistan faces. It is not dissimilar to previous crises, and it is not one that condemns Pakistan permanently, but for all this we have good geopolitical fortune, great geography, massive size, and resplendent Pakistani diversity to thank.
What is the way forward for Rawalpindi? There was never a time or place for doctrines. That is not what we rely on our armed forces for. This is the finest assembly of fighting men and women on the planet. Constantly underfunded, constantly understaffed, constantly under equipped and constantly underappreciated. The last thing Pakistani national security needed was an almighty domestic entanglement. Six long years have left the country weaker and more vulnerable – both to the wickedness of Pakistan’s enemies and the fickleness and whims of its friends.
Politicians here are not dramatically better or worse than elsewhere. But even if they were the worst ones on the planet, their sorting out is for the people – not our soldiers, spies, airmen and seamen. It will take longer than six years to change lanes and get healthier as a nation. That is enough time for at least two chiefs to have come and gone. Each must be welcomed with the great warmth and reverence afforded to the office by a grateful nation, and each must leave, without an extension, without eight, nine-hour sessions with journalists, without dozens of foreign trips, or hundreds of call-ons by diplomats and humanitarians and bankers and technocrats and businessmen, and without the burden of the dirty, filthy, thankless world of Pakistani politics.
Let the armed forces be all that they can be: free of the toxicity of politics, free of people’s criticism, the very best of us all, above and beyond the humdrum of the daily new cycle. It is time to restore honour, dignity and reverence to the armed forces. The first step? Step away from politics and the public discourse.
May Allah bless the Pakistani military as it tries to chart this new path, InshaAllah.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1014788-no-more-doctrines
