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Wise words from an old warrior
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
Sunday, 26 Apr, 2009 | 03:01 AM PST Ardeshir Cowasjee quotes words of wisdom by Air Marshal Asghar Khan. Air Marshal Asghar Khan, once, long ago, in what were the good old days, was the worlds youngest chief of an air force, Pakistans air force, which he led with distinction.
Following his retirement, he involved himself in politics and formed his own party in 1972 which he led from the front. Those who joined him and then left for greener pastures would fill the pages of a present-day Pakistani whos who. His participation in the uprising against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto landed him in jail for a few months in early 1977. Later, for his opposition to the rule of President Gen Ziaul Haq he spent 1,603 days under house arrest at his home in Abbottabad. Undeterred, he pressed on, and by 1994, tired and disillusioned, ended his political life.
But inactivity did not follow he travels and frequently speaks. On April 20, he came to Karachi to address the Jinnah Society and there is much that was said by this wise man, who has seen it all, that deserves reproduction.
He asked what we have done to Jinnahs Pakistan since his death, and then gave the answers: The first blow to his vision of Pakistan was the so-called Objectives Resolution passed within six months of his death. This turned Pakistan into an Islamic state which was not the vision of the founder of this country. Jinnah had said very clearly that the state would not interfere in religious matters. This departure from the concept that the creator of this country had about Pakistan has led us rapidly to the state of civil war we are in today. Initially it started with Shia-Sunni killings, and now we have the emergence of a band of fanatics who appear bent on destroying the Pakistan that Jinnah built.
In encouraging this, the United States and Ziaul Haq played a major role in mobilising the youth of the NWFP against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Having become the most dangerous country in the world, Pakistan is also known as one of the half a dozen most corrupt nations. To be successful in politics in Pakistan you have to fool the people, and most of those who have succeeded in getting into power have done this successfully. Pakistan has the distinction of being led at different times by acknowledged criminals of world fame.
He then dwelt on a subject that is mightily agitating the rest of the world in these times of troubles in which we now find ourselves, but which is largely ignored by both leadership and people who tend to brush off the dangers posed. If Pakistan survives this kind of so-called popular leadership, there is another more serious threat to its existence. That is the pride we take in being a nuclear power. Ever since Pakistan started to arm itself with nuclear weapons, I have spoken and written against it because I believe that rather than strengthening Pakistans defence it endangers its safety and survival.
From the Jan 31, 2009 issue of The Economist, in an article entitled Losing their way, we learn that the United Kingdom is equipped at great cost to fight a nuclear war, whereas it should be preparing to fight a conventional war. If this is true of the UK it is more so of Pakistan. The cost of acquiring nuclear capability by Pakistan has not been made public but it has surely increased the defence budget manifold, at great cost to the national exchequer. This has, in turn, increased the miseries of the people.
The UKs defence budget is half that of its budget for education and about one third of its health budget. In Pakistan the expenditure on defence is many times the countrys expenditure on both education and health. If the amount spent on the nuclear programme had been spent on education, the country would not have been at the mercy of the Taliban as it is today. This criminal misuse of national resources has cost the country dearly.
Until recently when the so-called Taliban became a problem, our defence expenditure was meant only to meet a threat from India. The fact is that in the last 60 years of our existence, India has not started hostilities against Pakistan unless provoked to do so, or until we created conditions, as we did in 1971 in East Pakistan, for India to interfere militarily .
Pakistans nuclear capability, by our own admission, is India-specific. India can justify its nuclear capability for different reasons. It has experienced hostilities with China, and is aspiring to be one of the permanent members of the Security Council, for which it feels that being a nuclear power would be a qualification. Its size, population, location and resources should, it could argue, entitle it to be a permanent member of the Security Council. Moreover, its relations with the United States and the latters desire to balance Chinas influence and power in Asia is likely to assure for it the support of the United States and the western world .
If we did not have nuclear weapons, declared ourselves to be a non-nuclear state, and opened ourselves to international inspection, there would be no possibility of India or any other country using nuclear weapons against us . [W]e should therefore prepare only for a conventional war. Wisdom demands that we stop planning for a nuclear war which, unless we start one, we will not have to fight. It is both unwise and unnecessary to prepare for the wrong war which could destroy us even without fighting one.
In the last 60 years, self-serving politicians have exploited our emotional people for their own political advancement and have led the nation to a situation that does not serve the interests of the country and could result in its destruction.
Now, if all that we read and hear carries weight, our self-serving politicians are leading us by the nose down a dark alleyway and may well succeed in bringing this country to its knees. Given the inactivity and relaxed attitude of army and government in the face of the advancing horde (to many of us the enemy at the gates), the world is justified in fearing that our nuclear assets may go astray as indeed are we citizens who must be imbued with the same fears until those on top lower their raised hands, control or eliminate the invaders, and come to the rescue of their country.
arfc@cyber.net.pk
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
Sunday, 26 Apr, 2009 | 03:01 AM PST Ardeshir Cowasjee quotes words of wisdom by Air Marshal Asghar Khan. Air Marshal Asghar Khan, once, long ago, in what were the good old days, was the worlds youngest chief of an air force, Pakistans air force, which he led with distinction.
Following his retirement, he involved himself in politics and formed his own party in 1972 which he led from the front. Those who joined him and then left for greener pastures would fill the pages of a present-day Pakistani whos who. His participation in the uprising against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto landed him in jail for a few months in early 1977. Later, for his opposition to the rule of President Gen Ziaul Haq he spent 1,603 days under house arrest at his home in Abbottabad. Undeterred, he pressed on, and by 1994, tired and disillusioned, ended his political life.
But inactivity did not follow he travels and frequently speaks. On April 20, he came to Karachi to address the Jinnah Society and there is much that was said by this wise man, who has seen it all, that deserves reproduction.
He asked what we have done to Jinnahs Pakistan since his death, and then gave the answers: The first blow to his vision of Pakistan was the so-called Objectives Resolution passed within six months of his death. This turned Pakistan into an Islamic state which was not the vision of the founder of this country. Jinnah had said very clearly that the state would not interfere in religious matters. This departure from the concept that the creator of this country had about Pakistan has led us rapidly to the state of civil war we are in today. Initially it started with Shia-Sunni killings, and now we have the emergence of a band of fanatics who appear bent on destroying the Pakistan that Jinnah built.
In encouraging this, the United States and Ziaul Haq played a major role in mobilising the youth of the NWFP against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Having become the most dangerous country in the world, Pakistan is also known as one of the half a dozen most corrupt nations. To be successful in politics in Pakistan you have to fool the people, and most of those who have succeeded in getting into power have done this successfully. Pakistan has the distinction of being led at different times by acknowledged criminals of world fame.
He then dwelt on a subject that is mightily agitating the rest of the world in these times of troubles in which we now find ourselves, but which is largely ignored by both leadership and people who tend to brush off the dangers posed. If Pakistan survives this kind of so-called popular leadership, there is another more serious threat to its existence. That is the pride we take in being a nuclear power. Ever since Pakistan started to arm itself with nuclear weapons, I have spoken and written against it because I believe that rather than strengthening Pakistans defence it endangers its safety and survival.
From the Jan 31, 2009 issue of The Economist, in an article entitled Losing their way, we learn that the United Kingdom is equipped at great cost to fight a nuclear war, whereas it should be preparing to fight a conventional war. If this is true of the UK it is more so of Pakistan. The cost of acquiring nuclear capability by Pakistan has not been made public but it has surely increased the defence budget manifold, at great cost to the national exchequer. This has, in turn, increased the miseries of the people.
The UKs defence budget is half that of its budget for education and about one third of its health budget. In Pakistan the expenditure on defence is many times the countrys expenditure on both education and health. If the amount spent on the nuclear programme had been spent on education, the country would not have been at the mercy of the Taliban as it is today. This criminal misuse of national resources has cost the country dearly.
Until recently when the so-called Taliban became a problem, our defence expenditure was meant only to meet a threat from India. The fact is that in the last 60 years of our existence, India has not started hostilities against Pakistan unless provoked to do so, or until we created conditions, as we did in 1971 in East Pakistan, for India to interfere militarily .
Pakistans nuclear capability, by our own admission, is India-specific. India can justify its nuclear capability for different reasons. It has experienced hostilities with China, and is aspiring to be one of the permanent members of the Security Council, for which it feels that being a nuclear power would be a qualification. Its size, population, location and resources should, it could argue, entitle it to be a permanent member of the Security Council. Moreover, its relations with the United States and the latters desire to balance Chinas influence and power in Asia is likely to assure for it the support of the United States and the western world .
If we did not have nuclear weapons, declared ourselves to be a non-nuclear state, and opened ourselves to international inspection, there would be no possibility of India or any other country using nuclear weapons against us . [W]e should therefore prepare only for a conventional war. Wisdom demands that we stop planning for a nuclear war which, unless we start one, we will not have to fight. It is both unwise and unnecessary to prepare for the wrong war which could destroy us even without fighting one.
In the last 60 years, self-serving politicians have exploited our emotional people for their own political advancement and have led the nation to a situation that does not serve the interests of the country and could result in its destruction.
Now, if all that we read and hear carries weight, our self-serving politicians are leading us by the nose down a dark alleyway and may well succeed in bringing this country to its knees. Given the inactivity and relaxed attitude of army and government in the face of the advancing horde (to many of us the enemy at the gates), the world is justified in fearing that our nuclear assets may go astray as indeed are we citizens who must be imbued with the same fears until those on top lower their raised hands, control or eliminate the invaders, and come to the rescue of their country.
arfc@cyber.net.pk
