A welcome first
In a welcome first, COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa briefed
the Senate Committee of the Whole on a wide range of issues beyond the original
intended thrust of national security. First and foremost, General Bajwa
categorically denied that the army was destabilising the civilian government.
He refuted recent conjectures regarding the army’s support to the Faizabad
sit-in, defended the army’s brokering a deal to end the protest, while
admitting an army officer should not have signed the agreement but argued there
would have been no resolution without it. He made the startling disclosure that
the distribution of Rs 1,000 each to the dispersing protestors by the DG
Rangers, Punjab was done on the orders of the prime minister. He categorically
stated that he firmly believed in democracy and the supremacy of the
Constitution. The army, he went on, had no desire to play any
extra-constitutional role. Parliament is supreme, he iterated, but called upon
the politicians not to provide space or opportunity to the army for
interference in the political sphere. Perhaps in the light of our history he
could have added that despite such opportunity, the army would resist the
temptation to act as the ultimate arbiter or authority. He admitted there had
been ‘mistakes’ in the past but said he should not be held responsible for
others’ actions. In a significant turnaround, the COAS advised parliament to
take the lead in framing foreign and security policies and the army would
implement them. This is a proposition still to be tested in practice since it
has been the army that has been foremost in framing such policies over the
years. If the COAS is confident that the institution he heads would follow his
prescription, nothing could be healthier for parliament, politics and the state
of the country’s affairs. General Bajwa supported normalisation of relations
with all Pakistan’s neighbours, including India, and that the army would
support any such moves. On relations with Iran and the Saudi-led military
alliance, the General supported good relations with the former while admitting
Pakistan’s efforts to prevent the latter from colouring the alliance in
sectarian hues had not met with success in Riyadh. On the contentious issue of
missing persons, General Bajwa castigated some who pretended to ne missing
while actually hiding underground but failed to say anything about the rest who
must by his logic be considered genuine cases. Numbers here are not the issue.
Even one person disappeared against the laws and constitution is one too many.
The General owed a more honest account of what is going on in the country in
this respect. On Hafiz Saeed and his recently launched political party Milli
Muslim League, the COAS denied supporting it, in contradiction of rumours doing
the rounds that the army desired to ‘mainstream’ such extremist outfits. Last
but not least, General Bajwa distanced himself and his institution from the
views expressed by retired Generals, including the advocacy of late of a presidential
system, which the COAS said would weaken the federation.
The reaction of most Senators to the COAS’s briefing
appeared positive since he had come through as very forthcoming and candid
despite some ‘tough and tricky’ questions. However, they differed over whether
the COAS’s appearance in the Senate had helped narrow the civil-military divide
or both sides’ mutual trust deficit. No doubt the COAS made all the right
noises, fending off in the process the slate of accusations gathering force
that the army was behind some grand design to upset the apple cart of the
democratic dispensation. Although taking at face value overoptimistic
conclusions that the COAS’s appearance had established the supremacy of
parliament may be premature, but it would be churlish not to appreciate the
openness of the interaction, reservations concerning some claims and assertions
by the General notwithstanding. The days ahead may provide confirmation or
refutation of some of these assertions. One hopes events henceforth follow the
script laid down by the army chief.
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