Listeners! Welcome to the programme Insight and on this very special episode of insight we shall be taking a look at Exercise Azm-e-Nau, which is actually a very important development that Pakistan Army is observing. It is largest-ever field exercise on the Eastern borders for preparedness to face new challenges and give the soldiers real field warfare experience.
And to talk about this very important development, we have with us Major General Athar Abbas, he is the Director General ISPR and the chief military spokesman. Sir, thank you very much for being with us.
Question: Sir, the very first question is about background of Azm-e-Nau III exercise. Please let us know what exactly these exercises are all about?
Answer: The background is, that Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has given a vision which started from Year Of Training. He declared last year that is 2009, as Year Of Training for all the soldiers and officers. And there onwards, we moved on to the war games of new concepts, the new emerging threats, the new ideas, and the new concepts in warfare. And now is the culmination of all these concepts. Basically to validate, and it has now resulted into Azm-e-Nau III which is basically to test, to validate the concepts discussed in war-games, in our debates, in our discussions in the garrisons in the cantonments. So this is the culmination of all that which was started a year back for the training of our soldiers and officers.
Question: And so far, would you tell our listeners how this exercise has been able to achieve its aims and objectives?
Answer: It is still on going. It is not finished. The Air force components are also in it. There are various arms and services of the Army participating in it. This means all the branches of the army are participating. There are two areas in which we are conducting these exercises. One in the South, in the desert where we have a long border with our Eastern neighbour. And also the second phase of the exercises will be conducted in the North. Which is basically are the planes of Punjab and where we have a long border with India. So, these are the two main areas of the exercises as I have said that the concepts, the ideas they are very new and we are trying to test them in the field. Which also includes our force multipliers, the latest innovations, which we have made in the field of electronic warfare, in the field of surveillance, night vision capabilities and communications. So, all these things what we have acquired, we are going to test them in the field. It is ongoing. It is sill on and hopefully by the end of April we will be over with the exercises in the desert. And then in the last week of April, we will start the exercises in the North.
Question: So it has a wide span and off-course it is one of the largest exercises of the Army. Sir, we will talk about the conventional threat from the East, you know, we also know there is an issue of arms race. How can we justify that such kind of exercises, will they keep us away from that arms race, that is a big issue in the region these days?
Answer: Yes, you know there is a history of conflicts in the region. And we have a large neighbour and it has a very ominous design also. Because one cannot ignore the acquisition, particularly in the domain of offensive equipment, which is Pakistan specific. The kind of weapon systems which have been acquired by India like offensive jet aircrafts, offensive mechanized formations, tanks and doctrines like cold start strategy, which is very offensive doctrine against Pakistan. So, therefore in the presence of Pakistan specific threat we cannot afford to low our guards. And at the same time looking at the economic situation of the country we have a great stress and we cannot afford to go into an arms race with our eastern neighbour. And we would like to fill these gaps with the hardcore training and professional approach. That is the reason why we are spending so much of time in training, in improving our professional standards; so that even with the less equipment and weapon systems, with good training we will be able to match anyone who has some designs against our country or which is ominous, which is threatening our country. Because our internal security problems we cannot keep our eyes away from the offensive capabilities in the conventional warfare.
Question: And sir, let us have another look, there are some voices which are saying it is a big strain on the budget of the country, so how does Pakistan Army justify the very extensive exercises in the presence of economic crisis which the country is facing?
Answer: Army is fully aware of the economic stress and economic difficulties which, the country is facing and therefore you see if you take the budget of the Army since last five years, you will realize that it has not increased, it has fluctuated rather it has gone down, it has decrease, reduced. It has re-fluctuated between 14% and 13% and therefore even today you will find Armys share of defence budget in the overall budget is 14%. And we have not asked for any additional amount from the government. We have pooled our resources, we have saved from the Army budget which is allotted at the start of the financial year and we are managing this exercise within the same budget. We have phased this exercise and we are going in segments. As I have said first we are focusing in the South, on the southern threats and the southern formations will go in the exercise. Then we will move in the North. And therefore we have managed it in a way that not a single paisa has been asked from the government. We have saved a lot from our Army budget. So that we must atleast test all new concepts in this exercise. I think, the point to understand here is that sometimes in nations history there is a weak moment, where the nation is vulnerable, that becomes very tempting for anyone who has evil designs against our nation. Therefore we should always be prepared for any kind of threat, any kind of offensive designs by an adversary. This is our resolve, we must have good training standards and we must remain prepared all the time. The good preparation will strengthened the defence that will deter war. Any weakness in this regard is always very tempting to the one who has evil designs against our people and nation.
Question: And Major General Athar Abbas you said that, that is through these exercises that you can stay prepared and you can stay very strong. How will it enhance our capacity and make us up to date with the latest technology?
Answer: We are testing our latest technology and hopefully it will increase our force multipliers. These are the things which are going to further strengthen our defence. I think good beginnings have been made where; we have involved the local population also. There were a large number of students from the colleges who have joined the Army and they wanted to be part of our system. It is very encouraging from that point of view. And we are also now trying, you know the impression at present in the country, is that army is completely involved at the western border and they are only doing the military operations in internal security duties against the threat of terrorism and extremism. But we want to tell the nation that we are fully aware of the conventional threat from the east and at no point in time, at no stage we would like to lower our guards against the conventional threat. There is a constant ever growing offensive capability of our adversary, we must remain alive to this conventional threat and we must maintain the bottom-line of defence in conventional realm.
Question: And how do you say that Azm-e-Nau III exercise will maintain and enhance the capabilities and potentials of the Pakistan Armed Forces?
Answer: Now since we have gone in the field and we are in the process of testing of all those concepts we had discussed, we had conceptualized before going into the field, we would try to evaluate and observe what gaps are existing, where are the deficiencies, which areas must need attention, focus and improvement. And after the exercises there will be a post analysis report of the exercise and we would like to focus in those areas which were require more attention.
Question: And also the DG ISPR and Chief Military Spokesman, sir, what exactly is the message to the nation who is listening to you right now?
Answer: I think, the army chief has said that Army has a great reason; it has full national support in the internal security operations as well any threat in the conventional realm. And the chief has already said on so many occasions, the nation should have full confidence in our armed forces and that the army is fully prepared, fully alive to the complete spectrum of threats, may it be terrorism, violent extremism or any type of conventional threat. And they must have full faith and full conviction in their armed forces. The armed forces would always rise to the occasion and will never disappoint the nation.
Question: Insha Allah! Sir, and with that we come to the end of this program, I thank you very much once again for being with us in the Insight. Listeners! That was Major General Athar Abbas DG ISPR and Chief Military Spokesman.
He was talking about Azm-e-Nau III exercise
Thank you for listening to us.
