Calling out the army
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Daily Times, Pakistan, May 09, 2009ANALYSIS: Salman Tarik Kureshi
The military mind’s preoccupation with clear objectives and effective action is very attractive. But to require it to frame complex political strategies and to design multi-dimensional, finely nuanced national security policies are tasks for which it is simply not educationally or psychologically equipped
As Prime Minister Gilani announced military action against the insurgency in Swat, three questions came to this analyst’s mind.
First: is this meant only for Swat; what about the rest of the NWFP; what about FATA, particularly the two Waziristans; what about the alleged Taliban GHQ in Quetta; what about the killer squads, arms caches and sleeper cells scattered all over Pakistan, from Islamabad to Karachi? Will these all be taken out by our men in khaki?
Second: why is the prime minister the one to be making this speech? It could easily have been made a couple of days earlier, or later, by President Zardari. I mean, everybody knows that the oratorical skills of PM Gilani do not begin to rival the vaunting brilliance of his party’s late founder or the inspirational warmth of its late chairperson, to which our people have been accustomed. No, not even, the glib smugness of our last and most arrogant COAS.
It is not that President Zardari — he of the permanently set-in plastic smile — could have rivalled that august company. But, after all, he is the president of a government that is largely presidential in style and content — at least until the 8th and 17th Amendments have been repealed — and therefore holds the real reins of power. In any case, he is the head of the party to which PM Gilani belongs and, in that capacity, hired PM Gilani for the job.
What hurry was there that it had to be the prime minister who made this address? And at 11 o’clock at night, with sleep assailing a consciousness threatened by his stolidly wooden delivery and the uninspiring bureaucratese inflicted on us by his speechwriters!
Third: why now? Surely, the need for decisive action along the military dimension has been all-too evident for a long time. What happened to suddenly stir Prime Minister Gilani into the unaccustomed postures of action? In fact, in a very real sense, the rug had earlier been pulled from under the feet of the armed forces when Maulana Sufi Mohammad (who, please note, is no Sufi and does not aspire to be regarded as one) was injected into the situation. The Maulana’s subsequent actions and pronouncements having been entirely predictable, one must ask: what were we waiting for?
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Labels: Army Operation, Pakistan, Swat, Taliban, Terrorism
posted @ 12:07 PM,
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