An Insight Into Pakistan Army and Musharraf

Iftikhar Chaudhry is an exception.He is not a nylon sock full of fresh manure.But he remains an exception.A tower in a sea of mediocrity.I think that he was mishandled.Here the blame lies with Musharraf's team.

Re: # 173

My dear thanks for the remarks.Hitler was an elected leader and thus cannot be compared to Musharraf or Zia.Later he however did distort the German constitution an became a dictator.However as hey say the Second World War was not lost by the coup makers of 25 July 1944.They were great people.Revolt in army is out of question unless the USA encourages it.We must understand that this country , at least as the present system is run is little more than a US colony.

...there is a movie titled, "A few Good Men," starring tom cruise, demi moore and jack nicholson that every military officer should watch.....

....it depicts the mindset and pressures of a certain group in the military.......,i.e. the end justifies the means...

the first things that needs to occur in the pakistan military is to totally overhaul the training sytem of the academies to change the culture of the military........

cadets should not be taken at the age of 15, when they have seen nothing else and can be brainwashed.....that brainwashing is what leads to coups as generals.....

the academies should take in cadets who are around 20 years old and have completed a b.a./m.a level degree in civilian colleges......that way they have exposure to civilian life and cannot be brainwashed that easily.......in addition they have civilian contacts and will continue to interact with civilians, throughout their lives.....

in addition, importance needs to be taken away from staff colleges with useless non-competitive strategic studies type degrees and all future commanders should be forced to compete in civilian institutions for masters and ph.d. degrees (like it happens in the usa).....

also, each person who is to be a career officer should have to spend one to two years in a private sector firm on deputation...........

ijaz gul: i agree that a "revolt" in the army would be disastrous. the fact that musharraf has had to leave his uniform is no doubt due to pressures from within the military seeking to disassociate itself from his bizarre and destructive actions in the line of his personal ambitions. the military now needs to understand that it owes allegiance to the nation and not to individuals - contrary to the self-serving message given by musharraf.

the military needs to understand that for the sake of their own children they should work towards preserving and strengthening the Pakistani constitution - not destroying it by firing honest judges and replacing them with rubbers stamps; by allowing a free press that can criticize all public institutions including the military, not suppressing it.

#169 the wehrmacht was no doubt a great fighting force - but it was a military that owed its allegiance not to the constitution but to a dictator. so that army is hardly something to look up to. moreover, german generals of that time have been rightly castigated by historians for not standing up to Hitler (whether in stopping his destruction of democratic institutions like an independent and free and fair elections under the weimar republic, or later in making stupid decisions of biting off more than even a herrenvolk could chew). so dont ignore that when comparing it favorably with the Pakistan army whose average soldier and officer is second to none in personal courage even if its generals have let down the nation over and over again.

all pakistanis should be proud of the cj as you rightly are. While the press may have started joking about musharraf's as being Bush's golden retriever, and while even his US supporters (like those in conservative think tanks) may say that they have to hold their nose when dealing with musharraf, the cj has proved to be an inspiring figure. He as inspired not just thousands of Pakistani people, but even forced third rate leaders like NS and BB and even bush in the US to follow his lead in calling for free and fair elections. His name, along with those of scores of other Pakistanis is secure in history.

Rather interesting discussion.I wrote an article in Russia's PRAVDA on 25 Sep 2001.This gives some idea of the mindset of the Indo Pak Armies !

Pravda.RU:Main:More in detail

16:20 2001-09-24

A.H.AMIN: THE INDO-PAK ARMIES AND THEIR MERCENARY CALLING

As the adage aptly describes, there is nothing worse than to do the right thing for the wrong reason. We may modify it slightly by rephrasing it as doing the right thing, or the supposedly right thing, for the wrong reason!
The pre-1947 Indian Army was a mercenary army composed of villagers from barren, rain-irrigated areas of India! These mercenaries were employed against their own people right from 1757! The Sepoys (as these mercenaries were called) fought for money just like the Senegalese in French occupied Africa fought for money! These mercenaries comprised many nationalities and religions. They killed the Santhals in Bengal and the Martathas in Central India; they destroyed Tipu Sultan in 1799; they fought against the freedom fighters of 1857 when a greater part of the Hindustani mercenaries rebelled against the British masters! They fought against the Punjabi Sikhs, who later on were enlisted as mercenaries! They fought against the Afghans in three wars during 1839-42, 1878-80, and in 1919. In addition, they fought in countless expeditions in the Trans-Indus Frontier from 1843 to 1946, destroying livestocks, razing villages to the ground, and destroying wells.
Internationally, these mercenaries fought against the Muslim Turks in the First Great War, against the Chinese in the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, and against the Germans and in the First and Second World Wars: all races that had nothing against India! In short, these men fought for a living against anyone, whether they be Muslim Christian, Buddhist, Indian, Turkish, German, or Chinese for a living! Espirit de Corps was a cleverly coined British ploy to galvanize these mercenaries.
There were exceptions to the mercenary rule. In 1857, the Bengal Army, some three-fourths of which was Hindustani Hindu led by one fourth Hindustani and Ranghar Muslims mostly from cavalry that rebelled against the English East India Company! Unfortunately, India was not a country, and the English Company found eager mercenaries in the northwest! They were eager to loot Delhi and panting to get land grants, Jangi Inams, and many more carrots that the cunning English colonials promised! Opportunism became the rule of Indian society, now known as Indo Pak, whether it was poets, educationists, lawyers, civil servants, or soldiers! The Indians were a defeated people and they thought that the White man was invincible! There were some exceptions to apathy when Sher Ali, a tall, muscular Pathan, stabbed the British Viceroy Mayo in the Andaman Islands in 1872! However, Sher Ali was an exception, and most Indians were far more pragmatic and opportunistic than a Pathan convict in Andamans! Thus, nobody remembers Sher Ali today except the Pashtun Students Federation, where his photograph tops the gallery of heroes! Sher Ali was ,however, an exception, and sycophancy and appeasement remained the cardinal lifescripts of most Indians. Some motivated Pathans of the tribal area minus the more opportunistic people of Mardan Charsadda Swabi Kohat and D.I Khan carried at the struggle that had its origins in Sayyid Ahmad Brelvis guerrilla war.
Then came the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05! The myth of European superiority was broken! Some audacious men, mostly Bengali Hindus, decided to strike back! A bold man called Rash Behari Bose actually attacked the British Viceroy Charles Hardinge with a bomb containing gramophone needles and nails while he was entering Delhi in 1813. Unfortunately, Bihari failed to kill the viceroy. However, terror struck at the heart of the British! Their viceroy was attacked not in far flung Andaman Islands but in the newly created imperial capital Delhi and not by a Wahabi but by a highly educated Bengali Hindu. Rash Bihari escaped, but the Indian Army did not wake up from the slumber of their mercenary sleep.
The First World War was yet another testing ground for the mercenary Indian Army. In the words of one British historian, the Punjabi Muslims stood staunch as a rock while there was a question mark over the Pathans. He did not ,however, add that these disloyal Pathans were not from settled districts of Mardan or Charsadda Kohat or Peshawar but from the tribal areas and from D.I Khan. Some Indian military men were ashamed of their degrading mercenary status and did rebel against the British. Notable among these were the Hindustani Muslim Ranghars of the 5th Light Infantry, who for some time captured Singapore; the Afridis of various Frontier Force Units, notably the indomitable Mir Mast Afridi; and some Mahsuds from the Mahsud Companies of the 129 and 130 Baluchis. Lastly, there were the Pathan Squadrons of Curetons 15 Lancers (the Punjabi Muslim Squadrons remaining pragmatically loyal).
All these men died, but all men are mortal. Is it death that our rulers are afraid of or is it a billion dollar package that will give them immortality? Is collaboration at the rate of few billion the golden lesson that they are leaving for posterity? A pragmatic lesson one must say. One important development took place during the First World War. The Sikh Ghadrites, a group of Punjabis, some Hindus, and mostly Sikhs, did manage to subvert the Indian Army from their mercenary calling. They did not succeed, but many soldiers of scribes unit 23 Cavalry were court martialled and executed for conspiracy against British Empire. On the whole, the Indian Army remained staunch even when martial law was imposed in Punjab in 1919, Gujranwala was bombed, many civilians flogged or made to crawl in the public, and many hundreds of civilians were killed by the army. The only inspiring incident of the Indian Army not being a mercenary force occurred in the 1930s, when the Garhwali Hindus soldiers of a unit of the Royal Garhwal Rifles refused to fire on the Pathan Muslim Redshirts demonstrating against the British. The Indian Army remained largely loyal in WW II, minus the Indian National Army in Burma. By and large, Indian independence had no connection with the Indian Army, who remained loyal mercenaries to the end to their British masters.
In India Nehru reduced the army to its correct place, i.e. a servile instrument of policy of the civilians. In Pakistan, because the Muslim League the political party that led Pakistan, there was an a party of soldiers with a mercenary past, and with nothing to do with the political struggle to free India, they were able to usurp power. Since they were leaders of a mercenary army rather than a national army, they made the USA their godfather, making professions of being the vanguard of the USA, whether it was the protection of Anglo-Iranian Oil Fields or supporting Anglo-French claims over the Suez Canal. In the process of this abject appeasement, they managed an aid package from the USA. This was sufficient to make the Pakistan Army a sophisticated army but insufficient to win a war against India, not because of material reasons, but because of poor higher leadership and strategic and operational ineptness.
All throughout this period, the common Pakistani was anti-US anti-West, pro-Arab, and pro-Muslim. However, the common man was only a servile tool , democracy having been destroyed by 1958. The army remained a mercenary army with little national participation. It fought the 1965 War well, albeit at a battalion level, since beyond the battalion level, the more senior ranks were ones who had been programmed by the pre-1947 British to be company commanders at best. The 1965 War proved to be a watershed in Pakistani history, since it made clear the fact that the army was not a national army , since it was without participation from the country’s east wing! This fact was realized by General Yahya, the new C in C, but it was too late. The result was a civil war followed by defeat in a conventional war and the break up of Pakistan into two states. Few lessons were learnt, and soon, the country’s first post-1946 democratically elected government was dismissed amidst allegations of superpower involvement. The army came with a 90-day promise to hold elections, which were never held. The gap between the people and the army grew, and the situation was saved only by the fact that the Zia military junta found a new master, more correctly a new paymaster, in the USA once the USSR invaded Afghanistan. For next nine years, Pakistan fought the USA’s war against communism, only to be conveniently discarded like an syringe with a decade long life. A syringe used to inject poison into the Red Army and then thrown into the incinerator of history!
Within three years of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the USA was all keen to declare Pakistan a terrorist state; the Americans have short memories. Something like an impromptu encounter with a lass in a bar, followed by an expression of eternal love and everything forgotten the next day after the desired objective is achieved.
Suddenly, in September 2001, precisely on the 11th of September, the USA suddenly woke up from a thirteen-year attack of insomnia and remembered that they had a very close friend called Pakistan: cheap friend led by a machine with a mercenary past. Thus, the latest US-Pakistan nexus. What is the motivation of Pakistan’s military elite to appease the USA? They are a bunch of men who came into power in an impromptu manner and suffer from a crisis of legitimacy. Since the end of the Cold War, mercenaries were no longer in demand and Pakistan’s standing army was getting little aid from USA or any potential mercenary masters.
The strikes September, 11th 2001 changed everything! Once again, Pakistan’s elite got a chance that they had last received in 1979. Because they had missed one in the 1990-91 Gulf War, this time they are in no mood to miss another! Their mercenary calling has been given a God-given opportunity! Without any deliberation, the military junta gave the US near divine status and offered their mercenary services against a neighbouring Muslim country. Soon, this stand was rationalized by the military dictator in the name of Pakistan’s best interest; that India would benefit if Pakistan did not go on its knees to appease the Americans; that the Israelis would attack Pakistan; that the USA was lesser of the two evils. Pakistan, the so-called bastion of Islam despite its 500,000 man army and an arsenal of nuclear weapons, is literally crawling in diplomatic language to appease the Americans. If this state created in the name of Islam is so vulnerable, then it should be declared the fifty-first state of the USA. It be a Puerto Rico or Panama with a US military presence. Why all the macho talk about being Momins and soldiers of Allah? Soldiers of Allah who will be doing sentry duty around prospective airfields from where US aircrafts would fly to subject Afghanistan to fire and destruction! If a few billion dollars are so important, then what is the difference between Sepoy Khudadad who fought for 18 Rupees a month in the 1920s for the King and against his enemies? If this country cannot survive without oil imported for free or on a subsidized rate from a neighbouring country, why waste the tax payers' money on a foreign ministry that consumes some 28 crores per day! God may have made us poor, but we became Be Ghairat (Shameless) by our own choice!
There have been too many strange coincidences in the last month. The death of General G.A Khan, the descendant of the indomitable Alizais who defied British orders to fight against the Turks in Mesopotamia 1915 in Mesopotamia. The reader may note that the 15 Lancersso was an all-Muslim unit, but only its less pragmatic Pathan Squadrons refused to fight against the Turks, while the more pragmatic Punjabi Muslim Squadron obeyed orders like sheep. At the time of the blast, Pakistan’s top intelligence official was in USA. The Chinese decided to make a port at Gwadar, which could also be a naval base. The Talibans were close to complete victory in Afghanistan!
The year 2001 is a watershed in Pakistani history. Either Pakistan will be condemned to be a country ruled by mercenaries, or it will became a true republic, an Islamic Republic or whatever one may call it. Are we so weak that one threat from a bully with an average IQ sends our leaders , so-called martial men who wear camouflage commando jackets, a clear and total violation of the army dress code, of the Pakistan army down to their knees? What is the use of a Chinese policy if one ultimatum evaporates all the resolution that our military leaders are supposed to have? It makes one think whether or not the Holy Kaaba is in Mecca or a few thousand miles further West.
To stab your neighbor in order to gain a few billion is being rationalised as pragmatic foreign policy. Even a courtesan called Hazrat Mahal did not collaborate with the British, fighting the war of Independence in Lucknow. She did not surrender even once Lucknow was recaptured in March 1858 and died in exile in Nepal. Pragmatism would have meant accepting a pension that the British offered her and settling in India. However, this dancing girl was not a mercenary!
What has happened? Our rulers have accepted the role of glorified coolies and camp followers of the USA! This country's rulers had sold their souls in 1954 once the first major treaty with USA was signed. After a great deal of kicking during the period of 1990-1999, they regained some pride.The year 2001 has robbed this nation from being a nation of resolute man. We have been auctioned for a few billion dollars. Auctioned because a superpower wants access to the strategic underbelly of Russia and China. Auctioned because of valid strategic reasons. Our leaders have not learnt anything from Machiavelli, whom they do try or claim to read. The men who collaborate with any superior power or play bargaining games with it are the first targets. Thus, the fate of Liaquat in 1951, the fate of Bhutto in 1979, and that of Zia in 1988. We have everything written on the wall. Its only the lack of perception that makes us blind. Even Russia and China will be the losers! This so-called attack will stop on the Oxus River or at the Wakhan Strip. It will spread on into Chinese Turkestan (Sinkiang), Tajikistan, Kazakhastan, and to the Urals. If there is a minor Muslim separatist threat in China or Russia today, after a few years, these separatists will be getting Stingers to fight with until Siberia, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and Sinkiang are sattellites of the Western powers. The Iranians are secretly rejoicing, but they must not forget that a Sunni Afghanistan is less of a threat than an Afghanistan administered under a US or UN mandate. The Talibans in all probability may be crushed, but Afghan nationalism will survive! Their will be new groups, new Ahmad Shah’s, nd new Hikmatyars who will fight a new Holy war against US occupation with Chinese- and Russian-supplied weapons, such as those from the CIA during 1979-88. The Russians must forget how the USA had behaved when they occupied Afghanistan in 1979. 14,000 Russians died, most because of of weapons supplied to the Afghan resistance by CIA. The USSR must redress the balance of 1979-88 during 2001-10. Let the invaders come and settle down in Kabul and Kandahar and then send gifts of 100 body bags each day to their home country!
Is this country a private security agency that can be hired for a few billion dollars? If that is the case, why not lease our forces to fight as mercenaries as they did before 1947? Never in Pakistani history was collaboration so openly defended and propagated. Even Finland, a country far smaller than Pakistan, fought without US or British aid honorably for a certain duration of time. Are the
Indians such a threat that we have to compete with them in being timid and shameless? The mercenary calling of our state has once again triumphed! The "bastion of Islam" is too weak to withstand one verbal volley of a man who is angry about something that has happened many thousand miles away from this country. To compound things further, we have journalists, thinkers, and so-called experts busy writing articles for Hazoor ka Iqbal Buland Karna!
Opportunism, which was instilled in us by the British in 1757, has once again triumphed! Two countries were created in the name of religionto date,i.e., Israel and Pakistan. Israel has fought for its ideology. Ironically, Pakistan has retained its mercenary character. Wrong, forever on the throne and truth, forever on the Scaffold!

Look at Islamic history.It is a history of hopeless windbags.The army did not mutiny when it was used against Hazrat Imam Hussain.Just with a promise of a free Haj Yezid bought them ! Our history is hopeless ! Dont expect any miracles ! Who saved the Muslims of Delhi from the Hindu Mahrattas in 1803 ? General Lord Lake of the English East India Company's Bengal Army ! Who saved the Muslims of Lahore ,Peshawar,Kohat,Bannu and Dera Ismail Jhan from the Sikhs ? General Hugh Gough of the Bengal Army of the English East India Company in 1849 !

tahmed,
I am of the view that if the army revolts, Pakistan will become like so many other preatorian states. I mean it will be even worse. Can it exert some pressure? I doubt and pavocavalry has stated so.

Its the people who need to rise to the level of popularism that Bhutto and Mujeeb created. Even Mujeeb's popularism could not redeem the system. Bangladesh still has military interventions.Please refer to my 1935 minset theory.

See the realities. All channels less GEO are back.
Even NS is considering not leaving the field open.
Judges and laywers are split.Even earstwhile Aitezaz is contesting elections.
Benazir and JUI do not want to support the judges.
Sherry Rehman's critical mass remains a mirage.
Just because we wish it should happen cannot make it happen.
Cheerios

Stauffenberg tried although he failed.There was never a man mopre brave than Stauffenberg.But the Pakistan Army is not and acnnot be compared with the German Wehrmacht.

In Pakistan Army there were some great coup makers like Maj Gen Akbar Khan and Maj Gen Tajamul but they were misfits.They were great people.That breed is rare now and almost impossible.

My friend Aslam Watanjar tried and succeeded.We used to sip Vodka together in Russia a long time back.

I admire Justice Iftikhar but he too fought back only when pushed against the wall.

I hope that you are right.As I see it US pressure played a major role in Musharraf's removal of uniform.The USA has its own plans.Without its blessings no ruler of Pakistan can go on.Z.A Bhutto defied USA and the USA paid the PNA to launch an agitation against him.Even in his trial USA manipulated to make sure that he gets the death sentence.Read Profiles of Intelligence by Brig Tirmizi.Without US interference Benazir would not have returned , making it later possible for Nawaz Sharif to return.

If a general has forcibly occupied power there are two ways of removing him,one by political agitation and other by a coup detat.Coup detat is not possible because the Pakistani officer corps is not politically aware or does not have the guts.Agitation has failed to remove Musharraf.Now he has taken off the uniform so the issue is not that he is fit to wear the uniform or not.Just see how these politicans fare after January Elections.Then we can compare and judge Musharraf.Judgement has to be comparative.

#166 stauffenberg failed in his plot, I might remind you, sir.

you can call the Pakistani army docile and cowardly for not removing musharraf if you wish. That does not change what i wrote about musharraf.

i agree with you that the future is uncertain. and i agree that there could be greater unity in this struggle. at the same time, i would point to the courage of thousands of Pakistanis has already some significant achievements to its credit - notably, separating musharraf from the uniform (the issue that led him to "fire" the CJ to begin with. and this struggle has also changed the image of Pakistan from that of a nation beholden to terrorists to a nation with a large middle class that understands the importance of the rule of law even if its "leader" does not.

Re: # 165:--

The man being discussed i.e General Musharraf stayed in uniform and no officer of the Pakistan Army had the guts to remove him by a coup detat.That speaks volumes for a docile army ! Now that he has removed the uniform he is still in charge ! Either the Pakistani nation is docile or the politicians do not have the street power to remove Musharraf.There are no Stauffenbergs or Aslam Watanjars in this army ! Lastly I have no conection with any party my dear ! If you study my articles from 1999 till todate I have always criticised Musharraf ! However now that he is under fire everybody is criticising him ! This is the time to give a balanced viewpoint.Who is fit to wear the uniform and who is not is decided not by moral right but by power of the gun ! One Justice Iftikhar may have taken a stand but dont forget Justice Munir,Anwar ul Haq,Nasim Hassan Shah.The present agitation is not broad based.The future is uncertain and it is doubtful if these politicians that we have can steer this country out of crisis.

#160 pavocavalry: Calling kakar "low IQ" when in fact he did his duty within the constitution is typical of the arrogance of the mqm followers. As for Musharraf - this man has disgraced the uniform he wore, and as such is not fit to wear ANY uniform other than that of a prison inmate. Let alone the uniform of a Pakistani general - or even a major or a captain or even the lowest ranking soldier!! Once you understand this, then you can talk about the IQ of other people.

It is but human that hot contenders and those in chair are projected.Being DGMO or DG ISI or Commander 10 Corps in peace does not prove that a man is good or bad.The best plans are only proved or disproved in war.The Pakistani generals as I see them are not a dynamic breed.They were yes men , toed the official line,adhered to szero error syndrome and that is how they got to the top.Musharraf was an exception.In normal times a man with his personality would not have become the army chief.Lets hope that you are right about General Kayani.I hope that your assessmnt is correct.

Re #157

This must be one of the best dissection of Indo-Pak army I've ever read!!!

Agha Hamayun,
I cannot agree more with you. As regards Musharraf, your assessment is the same as mine. If you read the teaser, "A combination of threat perception and indispensability strengthened his quest for legitimacy till it consumed his reformist self". conveys a similar sentiment.
You did not reply to #154. I am keen to know your answer.
Cheerios