Foreign media prompted to criticise Pakistan’s military

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Pakistan's efforts for peace in the region have not been positively reciprocated, either by Afghanistan, or by India, as both are probably thrilled with their strategic partnership with the US




While the ISAF forces led by the US are still fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, due to its bold and sustained operational strategy, duly reinforced by the National Action Plan (NAP); the Pakistan military has almost eliminated terrorism in its Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and other parts of the country. In this context, terrorist hideouts in FATA have been totally demolished. Of course, Pakistan has achieved this tremendous success against terrorism by sacrificing over 70000 lives and undergoing an economic loss of over $107 billion.

Now, despite this state of affairs, some hostile intelligence agencies are sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan using Afghan soil. However, because of the Pakistan military’s ongoing Radd UL Fassad operation, these hostile forces are left to orchestrate only sporadic terrorist attacks.

Along with fighting terrorism, the Pakistan military has made many other positive contributions towards strengthening the country and helping bring peace to the region. It has supported democracy in the country, and contributed towards the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by providing security to the Chinese manpower working on this project. It has held talks with the Afghan leadership to seek their cooperation in fighting terrorism and fencing Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It has also reinforced government efforts of establishing peace in the region by encouraging dialogue with the Afghan government and it has also asked India to start bilateral talks with Pakistan to resolve their many disputes.

Since it is difficult to implement a strategy of blaming Pakistan for every terrorist act that takes place in the region, hostile forces have instead turned to attacking the military in the country by financing negative international propaganda

Nevertheless, Pakistan’s efforts for peace in the region have not been positively reciprocated, either by Afghanistan, or by India, as both are probably thrilled with their strategic partnership with the US. It appears that instead of the prevalence of geo-economics, geopolitics are playing out in the region mainly because of two main factors:

First, instead of seeking a negotiated peace with a nuclear armed Pakistan, India is instead exploiting western sensitivities on terrorism and USA’s concerns about China’s economic rise, to support their plans for a hegemony in South Asia. They also blame Pakistan for all the terrorism in the region, even though Pakistan has already done more than enough to prove that this is not the case. In fact, by blaming Pakistan, India wants to mask the fact that it is sponsoring terrorism themselves in order to undermine CPEC.

Second, the US feels encouraged to support India’s regional game plan of weakening Pakistan, since it hopes that ultimately India will act as its partner to support its Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China. Whereas India’s visible loyalty to the USA’s strategy is just meant to get US support for their membership bids for the UNSC and NSG, as well as to get access to advanced military technology.

Since it is difficult to implement this strategy of blaming Pakistan for every terrorist act that takes place in the region, hostile forces have instead turned to attacking the military in the country. They have resorted to financing negative international propaganda, by highlighting the so called civil-military divide in Pakistan. And, sadly enough, some misled Pakistani politicians, media channels, think tanks and civil society members are also criticising the Pakistan military on this account, not realising that they may be supporting the enemy’s agenda.


In the above context, just one example would suffice to prove that the international media is egged on to criticise the Pakistan military. By quoting Pakistani media channels, following international newspapers/ magazines have published articles and stories, claiming that the Pakistan military establishment was behind the recent blockade of a prominent TV channel. This news was reported in ZeeNews, Times of India, News Bharati, VOA News, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, and the Qatar Tribune to name just a few publications and news outlets. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the Pakistani military has no direct concern with the workings of news and entertainment channels and there is no real evidence to suggest otherwise.

As a result, it would be appropriate to suggest that Pakistani policy makers, mainstream media houses, think tanks and civil society members should effectively counter the evil designs of the hostile forces that are trying to weaken the Pakistan military, in turn weakening Pakistan itself. And, those Pakistanis, who quite often criticise the military on account of imagined civil-military divide should also refrain from doing so, realising that they may be inadvertently serving the enemy’s interest.

The writer is an ex-Army Colonel and a former Research Fellow, Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad

Published in Daily Times, June 13th 2018.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/252727/foreign-media-prompted-to-criticise-pakistans-military/

 

[Asian.Century]

Welldone pakistan military always!!!!

 

[Reichsmarschall]

 

[tarrar]

Look who is protesting, the mass killers, bastards.

 

[saltyashell]

Nonsencical paid propaganda.
Pakistan openly supports the taliban and anti india groups on its soil. Pakistan is seen as a convenient conduit to afghanistan so its actions are tolerated , but with its history of double dealing , nuclear proliferation and military coups , it would be a parriah state for the world.

 

[Mahmood-ur-Rehman]

Nonsencical paid propaganda.
Pakistan openly supports the taliban and anti india groups on its soil. Pakistan is seen as a convenient conduit to afghanistan so its actions are tolerated , but with its history of double dealing , nuclear proliferation and military coups , it would be a parriah state for the world.

All others nuclear nations did the same speak against them also you will not speak because you are by birth Hypocrite .Your father America was partner with us in all activities and due to that America is only super power

 

[Dalit]

Nonsencical paid propaganda.
Pakistan openly supports the taliban and anti india groups on its soil. Pakistan is seen as a convenient conduit to afghanistan so its actions are tolerated , but with its history of double dealing , nuclear proliferation and military coups , it would be a parriah state for the world.

Look who is talking. Your India and US/NATO forces openly support the child molesting Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Guess what your soldiers are supposed to do when Afghan warlords are enjoying their daily round of molestation... We have already seen how much progress they have made in the past 17 years. All you can do is resort to blame games. On Monday Pakistan is the reason why Afghanistan isn't peaceful. On Tuesday it is Iran. On Wednesday it is Russia. Your Indian ally oppresses, rapes and kills Muslims in Kashmir in broad daylight. You want Pakistan to just sit idle and take it all in? You are wrong about that.

LOL at nuclear proliferation. The whole world proliferates their nuke tech. Look at your American ally who openly breaks the rules and provides nuclear tech to certain countries. Nuclear non-proliferation treaties are just a word to the Americans. As for double dealing, wasn't it your American ally who started the Jihad against former USSR in Afghanistan?

Don't lecture us on military coups. This is our country so it will be our rules. Pakistanis don't seek an imposed democracy from Western nations. We have already seen the fruits of democracy in the past decades. From Nawaz Sharif to Zardari LOL If this what you term as democracy you can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

So much for a pariah state that you continue to use our supply routes to feed your soldiers. If we are that evil take your embassy out of Pakistan and stop asking Pakistan to do more.

 

[Kaniska]

As China will be engaged more and more with Pakistan, Pakistan military will be gaining more strength in coming years...So you can very well expect a Army and Military running the show in future for Pakistan...And agian, the democratic institutions in Pakistan has to share some blame for their failure to provide a quality governace to their people....Then it is quite natural for people of Pakistan to get frutrated with democratic way of functioning and prefer to military who they perceive as more patriotic and savious of their country..

Let people of Pakistan decide what form of governance is suitable for them...If China and Russia can be a superpower with dictatorship and one party rule, then who knows, Pakistan may do well with military rule...
If i am wrong, under Musharaf time, Pakistan was doing well in economy too...

 

[saltyashell]

Let people of Pakistan decide what form of governance is suitable for them...If China and Russia can be a superpower with dictatorship and one party rule, then who knows

So people will vote for a military dictatorship ? Sounds democratic.
Chinese like the indians have a sense of history , they want their countries to do well. Pakistan seems happy to scrape through, taking aid , depending on support.

 

[Dalit]

So people will vote for a military dictatorship ? Sounds democratic.
Chinese like the indians have a sense of history , they want their countries to do well. Pakistan seems happy to scrape through, taking aid , depending on support.

You know nothing about Pakistan. You have probably never set foot in this country and cannot point it on a world map. Spare us your lectures.

If we had a "democracy" similar to Pakistan in The Netherlands you would prefer anything, but this kind of a sham democracy.

Guess what. I was born and bred in The Netherlands and I visit Pakistan frequently. I can make the comparison.

Surely dictatorships are never a solution, but neither are sham democracies. It is very easy for Westerners to hand out lectures about democracy.

LOL you blame dictatorships for scraping through on handouts? Are you telling me that the civilian governments in Pakistan don't take aid from Western nations or the WB/IMF? You are in for a rude awakening. Much of the debt accumulated by Pakistan has been during civilian tenures.

 

[Aladyinkuwait]

Foreign media can do nothing about Pakistan's military. This was not unexpected. India can keep shivering in its boots, it will not be able to make China or Pakistan go back on CPEC.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

So people will vote for a military dictatorship ? Sounds democratic.
Chinese like the indians have a sense of history , they want their countries to do well. Pakistan seems happy to scrape through, taking aid , depending on support.

A functioning democracy is an evolving process. This isn't about 'not having a sense of history and scraping by' but about letting Pakistan's unique internal socio-political dynamics play out over time and allow a 'Pakistan led' system of governance evolve.

'Western ideals of democracy', when imposed/forced upon nations, result in conflict, chaos & destabilization ala Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan etc.

The best analogy to Pakistan is the Turkish model, where the military controlled the country directly, then indirectly, and then eventually the democratic system and political parties evolved and gained enough popular support to sideline the military.

 

[Dalit]

A functioning democracy is an evolving process. This isn't about 'not having a sense of history and scraping by' but about letting Pakistan's unique internal socio-political dynamics play out over time and allow a 'Pakistan led' system of governance evolve.

'Western ideals of democracy', when imposed/forced upon nations, result in conflict, chaos & destabilization ala Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan etc.

The best analogy to Pakistan is the Turkish model, where the military controlled the country directly, then indirectly, and then eventually the democratic system and political parties evolved and gained enough popular support to sideline the military.

I am all in favor of the Turkish system.

 

[Pakistansdefender]

Why would not they criticise pak army,
When three time prime minister nawaz Sherif bark at his own army and support Indian narrative.
When the Panama ki chorni marium nawaz go to submit his nomination papers and give anti army lecture.
When they run media cell against pak army.
Don't expect good from the west.