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Is the military establishment trying to bully the civilians into submission?

TalibanSwatter

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DAWN

Kamran Shafi

So then, December is upon us, another year has gone by in the Fatherland’s struggle to keep its head above water, to be accepted as another half-civilised country in the comity of nations.

The very same terrorists who were running amok during the Commando’s time in the sun while he and his collaborators ran with the hares and hunted with the dogs, are somewhat under control due to the political will of the major political parties of the country which has forced the security establishment to become pro-active.

I say ‘somewhat’ because almost all of the Swat/Fata Yahoo leadership is either not yet apprehended or killed, the chief murderers Fazlullah and Mehsud either escaping into Afghanistan, Fazlullah purportedly on one leg, the other melting into the countryside. The ones apprehended, such as Muslim Khan the Terrible are being kept under wraps, i.e., have appeared in no court of law. He is charged, may we remind ourselves, with cold-hearted murder, rebellion against the state, robbery and dacoity, and petty theft.

More, much more has happened to us hapless and lay Pakistanis, and to our country in the year gone by. And the jewel in that is the wilful near-revolt by our Rommels and Guderians when they thoughtlessly and recklessly came out publicly in a press release by the ISPR against the aid bill that the American Congress voted into law to give mainly civilian aid to help upgrade the education, health and other infrastructure sectors. It came with a military component too under certain conditions, mainly that the secretary of state will certify to Congress periodically that the Pakistan Army is firmly under the control of the civilian, elected please note, authority. Our Rommels and Guderians were said to be ‘furious’ at the wording of the bill.

Yet, barely nine days after their ‘fury’ had been vented on us ‘bloody civilians’, the commander US Centcom came a-calling, in which meeting the COAS Pakistan Army, conveniently forgetting the ‘fury’ he and his fellow generals felt at the wording of the aid bill, by now called the KLL for it had become US law, asked for early shipment of ‘sophisticated weapons’ for the fight against terror!

And what has yours truly been writing about during the past year? About hypocrisy and two-facedness. About the foibles of our politicians, specially of the PPP breaking its solemn promises made with the PML-N; the completely foolish and self-defeating coup against the elected, constitutional government of Punjab by Salmaan Taseer, erstwhile friend and campaigner for people’s rights, foolishness soon put right by the newly independent judiciary.

I noted, however, that whilst politicians can be put in their places by the electoral process itself which is always the preferred method, the superior judiciary is also there to correct the course where it is seen that a certain action is unconstitutional. Such as Salmaan’s coup. But what, pray, does one do with a rampant security establishment that deems it below its dignity to submit to the popular will i.e. the will of the people, as exercised through their chosen, elected representatives, ‘bloody civilians’ though they be? I have written about all of the above.

And also about why that Holy of Holies, the Mother of All Agencies, should be considered the exclusive preserve of the Pakistan Army when every other intelligence agency of note across the world is headed by civilians? I must add here that I received at least three emails containing the vilest abuse after I asked why a civilian could not head the ISI, a few weeks ago.

A little anecdote here: during CIA director Leon Panetta’s (Panetta was President Clinton’s chief of staff and is a ‘bloody civilian’) recent visit to the citadel of Islam, a vehicle in his motorcade from Benazir Bhutto airport to the ISI HQ overturned due to over-speeding and the penchant of Pakistani ‘security car’ drivers to stay as close to the VIP’s car come what may, was said in the press release to belong to a ‘sensitive agency’. I ask you! As if we ‘bloody civilians’ thought the overturned vehicle belonged to that dead-as-a-dodo ministry of tourism.

On the night of Nov 27-28, 2009, my house in Wah, where my wife and daughter and I had come to celebrate Eidul Azha, was fired upon six times by a high velocity firearm, probably a Kalashnikov (on single shot mode) judging from the half-inch deep and two-inch across holes in the concrete wall of the bedroom above ours, possibly a Takharov 30 MM pistol, popularly known as ‘TT Pistol’ in the Land of the Pure.

There was no sound of a motor vehicle driving away, suggesting professional hit-men who had probably parked their vehicle a way away towards the main GT Road and then calmly walked to it after doing their deed.

There were no empties found at the site giving further credence to the above theory — the assailants had taken care to catch the bullet casings before they fell to the ground, for you do not start looking for empties in the dead of night for fear of getting caught in the act. One of the ways that we used in the army during firing practice in my day was to hold a beret over the ejection port. We had to account for every round fired which I am sure is the case even now.

There is more: at exactly 17:33 on Nov 28, 2009, I received a telephone call from a woman speaking in uneducated Urdu and using a mobile phone (0300-274-9185). She asked if I was Kamran Shafi. When I said I was, she said that what had happened to me last night was just the ‘trailer’ and that the complete movie would also be shown.

When I asked why any of this should happen, she said, ‘One does not spit in the plate one eats from’, and that if I was not careful about what I write I would soon see the complete movie. I am a pensioner of the Pakistan Army, getting the princely sum of Rs1,200 a month, by the way. FIR No 827 has been registered at the Wah Cantonment PS in which I have in an additional application said that I suspect an ‘agency’ of doing the deed.

I must end by saluting Mian Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari for telephoning me inside of 15 and 17 minutes of my sending messages to their staff respectively, about what had happened. And the Punjab government for providing me and my family the best security it can. This is exactly why I stand on the side of elected leaders and against any further interference in our country’s politics by the men on donkey-back.
 
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:) :) :) i can only smile and smile over this Ali Baba 40 theives story.

Because uncle Kamran there are many other people i know who are more anti-Army than you but no one has touched them since this day.

One was a correspondent for the newspaper i worked in Peshawar, he is religiously-anti-Army and anti-ISI, he has joined a national known paper and he is doing the same anti-ISI, Anti-Army rant as he has been doing for the years but none has done anything against him.


Your try to get some publicity doesnt suit you sir.

we can understand your grudge against army because you were kicked out of PMA :)
 
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Unfortunately, the military establishment has had an unenvious well-established track record of trying to pound all civilian opposition into submission.

I recall several incidents under Musharraf's rule where politicians and media personalities were physically assaulted purportedly on orders stemming from certain 'agencies'. The assault on Sherry Rehman by a female attacker and the assault on the GEO offices in 2007 were a couple of the more prominent incidents.

The most recent incident involving Kamran Shafi indicates that such intimidatory tactics may have been institutionalized within the khaki establishment and not specifically linked to any decision-maker.

Clearly, the military establishment elements accused should be investigated for this alleged act of thuggery.

Who will hold the military establishment's goon agencies accountable in a country where the military considers itself to be the supreme authority??

The sooner the military concedes the supremacy of civilian rule, the better off we'll all be.
 
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I also recall several incidents under Musharraf's rule where politicians and media were physically assaulted purportedly on the orders stemming from certain 'agencies'. The assault on Sherry Rehman by a female attacker and the assault on the GEO offices in 2008 were a couple of the more prominent incidents.

The incident involving Kamaran Shafi indicates that such intimatory tactics have been institutionalized within the establishment and not specifically linked to any decision-maker.

Has the military establishment not learnt from its past mistakes? The military establishment and it agencies should be investigated for this alleged act of thuggery.

Who will hold the military establishment's goon agencies accountable in a country where the military considers itself to be the supreme authority??

The sooner the military concedes the supremacy of civilian rule, the better off we'll all be.


It was a Military Gen Musharraf who has given us free media to an extent that everyone can go yupping against army.

anyway swatter seriously the story uncle shafi is narrating is so silly.

A woman speaking in educated urdu would be used by agencies to warn him ?? lolzz:rofl:
 
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I also recall several incidents under Musharraf's rule where politicians and media were physically assaulted purportedly on orders stemming from certain 'agencies'. The assault on Sherry Rehman by a female attacker and the assault on the GEO offices in 2007 were a couple of the more prominent incidents.

The most recent incident involving Kamran Shafi indicates that such intimidatory tactics have been institutionalized within the khaki establishment and not specifically linked to any decision-maker.

Clearly, the military establishment elements accused should be investigated for this alleged act of thuggery.

Who will hold the military establishment's goon agencies accountable in a country where the military considers itself to be the supreme authority??

The sooner the military concedes the supremacy of civilian rule, the better off we'll all be.
That was on order of Pervez Musharraf..Not from Army.He was not COAS then..he was only President and mind you Musharraf had Ijaz Shah at IB which is civilian agency and it did all the dirty work.Last i checked, Government is in fact run by civilians currently.If anything these goons are fighting each other (MQM vs PPP Etc..)Khaki establishment is just enjoying the show.Obviously one can't convince Kamran Shafi.Hell, few of his articles regarding F-16 sales were debunked on pakdef.info.He did not even have decency to reply to the people who debunked his articles and emailed him.
 
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Patriot, he was kicked out of PMA for obviouse reasons :)

anyway you can see all those anti-Army people kicked out of forces ranging from Ayaz mir to Kamran shafi to Aysha siddiqa.
 
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Patriot, he was kicked out of PMA for obviouse reasons :)

anyway you can see all those anti-Army people kicked out of forces ranging from Ayaz mir to Kamran shafi to Aysha siddiqa.

Aysha Siddiqa ... Now that is new to me. when this happened??
 
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That was on order of Pervez Musharraf..Not from Army.He was not COAS then..he was only President and mind you Musharraf had Ijaz Shah at IB which is civilian agency and it did all the dirty work.Last i checked, Government is in fact run by civilians currently.If anything these goons are fighting each other (MQM vs PPP Etc..)Khaki establishment is just enjoying the show.Obviously one can't convince Kamran Shafi.Hell, few of his articles regarding F-16 sales were debunked on pakdef.info.He did not even have decency to reply to the people who debunked his articles and emailed him.

Patriot - the non-democratic involvement of the khaki establishment in the political domain is a known fact. Hell, PML-Q was created by the khakis!

Musharraf was never a one man show - for the longest time he was the army chief and duly represented the military establishment's selfish 'interests' until he became a liability due to his missteps in the CJ saga.
 
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Unfortunately, the military establishment has had a unenvious well-established track record of trying to pound all civilian opposition into submission.

I recall several incidents under Musharraf's rule where politicians and media personalities were physically assaulted purportedly on orders stemming from certain 'agencies'. The assault on Sherry Rehman by a female attacker and the assault on the GEO offices in 2007 were a couple of the more prominent incidents.

The most recent incident involving Kamran Shafi indicates that such intimidatory tactics have been institutionalized within the khaki establishment and not specifically linked to any decision-maker.

Clearly, the military establishment elements accused should be investigated for this alleged act of thuggery.

Who will hold the military establishment's goon agencies accountable in a country where the military considers itself to be the supreme authority??

The sooner the military concedes the supremacy of civilian rule, the better off we'll all be.

I think that speaks more to the culture of Pakistani rulers in being intolerant of criticizm.

Both the PPP and PML-N in their past stints at office used thuggery, harassment, arrests and sometimes beating up and torturing journalists and others who dared criticize them or were considered to be too close to the opposition. The Supreme Court was attacked under such a civilian administration.

The PPP decision to force the Dubai government to close the Geo talk show 'Meray Mutabiq' a few days ago, and the attempts to use Pemra to muzzle the media from criticizing the President and government indicates those attitudes and intolerance to criticizm has not yet left.

The blame falls on the rulers, not the military as an institution.

May I also point out that Kamran Shafi, after a long time, recently also wrote a scathing article against Zardari and the PPP accusing them of learning absolutely nothing from the debacles of previous governments.

I find it far more coincidental that he gets attacked right after that article criticizing the PPP, since his anti-military rants are not a recent phenomenon.
 
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Nice observation anglo. Why Army or ISI will threat someone and will call him from a mobile to tell him that he must avoiding doing what he is doing??

Actually, Pakistani elite is not accustom to criticism,be it military or civilians, as media independence is not very old in this part of the world.
 
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How can one come and go after firing in Wah so peacefully.

Ain't it a defence area with high security alert after blasts.:undecided:
 
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Mr. Shafi is another recipient of the Nawaz Sharif wazifa.

He never bothers to write how our politicians have attacked and abused institutions of this country. How can he ignore the SC attack by thugs of NS?

Mr. Shafi never writes about how NS and BB became billionares. This will explain why the mases of Pakistan don't vote in large numbers. This also explains why we don't have a national leader.

Mr. Shafi should also write about the treatment Makhdoom Javed Hashmi is recieving from PML-N?
 
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Navy, kicked out for suspicious activities.
Proof?

I think that speaks more to the culture of Pakistani rulers in being intolearant of criticizm.

Both the PPP and PML-N in their past stints at office used thuggery, harrasment, arrests and sometimes beating up and torturing journalists and others who dared criticize them or were considered to be too close to the opposition. The Supreme Court was attacked under such a civilian adminsitration.

The PPP decision to force the Dubai government to close the Geo talk show 'Meray Mutabiq' a few days ago, and the attempts to use Pemra to muzzle the media from criticizing the President and government indicates those attitudes and intolerance to criticizm has not yet left.
All these things, thuggery, harrasment, arrests, beating up and torturing journalists and others who dared criticize have happened and at much larger scale during the successive military rules of Iskander, Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf. Singling out the civilians for the intolerance or what not will be avoiding from the well-documented and well-established facts and history.

The blame falls on the rulers, not the military as an institution.
When every single department is headed and run by the serving military officers than the blame does fall on the military as an institution. The military dictators are nothing without the active support of the military and that has been the single most important reason for why the military dictators never let go their uniforms, and when that happened as in the case of Musharaf, he had to leave soon after that.

Mr. Shafi is another recipient of the Nawaz Sharif wazifa.
Proof?
 
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All these things, thuggery, harrasment, arrests, beating up and torturing journalists and others who dared criticize have happened and at much larger scale during the successive military rules of Iskander, Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf. Singling out the civilians for the intolerance or what not will be avoiding from the well-documented and well-established facts and history.
No, the blame still falls on the rulers and their advisers who make policy and issue the orders to implement it. The Army as an institution merely executes the orders given it by its leadership.

And I am not 'singling out civilian' rulers, merely pointing out to TS that much of what he described was also done by past civilian administrations that included the cast of characters that are currently running the GoP, and to automatically lay the blame for this incident at the footsteps of a military that has taken pains to change track from Musharraf;s policies of inserting the military into civilian issues is disingenuous.

If anything, given the PPP's recent actions and the past history of intolerance towards criticizm by the very same set of leaders on display now (Musharraf, Ayub and Yahaya are not running the Army anymore are they? Unlike Zardari his advisers and the Sharif's), it would in fact be logical to lay the responsibility for such acts at the door of our current rulers, instead of finding a scapegoat in the military.

Kamran Shafi has been criticizing the military for a long time, and the military is riding a wave of high approval and support - it has no logical reason to engage in such idiotic acts now. Zardari and the PPP however are in contrast suffering from deep unpopularity and criticizm - they have everything to gain by orchestrating something like this and blaming the military.
 
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