Dr. Umar Khan

khanmomar@hotmail.com

Dr. Khan belongs to a Lahore based Think Tank.

1-6-18

 

Military, binding force of a nation?

“The summary of the advice of all prophets is this; Find yourself a mirror”. Shams Tabraizi

It has become a routine among Pakistani writers and opinion makers to call the army as the greatest binding force of the nation. In his recent controversial book Gen Durrani also thought that it’s the military holding Pakistan together. This way of thinking has reached abroad and we see senior American diplomats including John Kerry while admiring Pakistan army calling it a major binding force of the nation. It has nearly become an established fact which no one challenges but what does it construe? Unfortunately it means that Pakistan is not a nation but a group of people put together with the force of a gun; a very wrong and extremely insulting thought. With a slight twist of tongue a loved national army is made into an occupational force. As a nation we should reject this narration, it is humiliating.

We the 210 million Pakistanis live together because we want to. We are multicultural and multilingual but have more in common than different, as compared to many other nations. Important factors that create national cohesion are favorable like we have a common language, culture, dress, religion and continuity of land.

Travelling across the country I experienced only love and warmth whether I was in Punjab, KPK, Sind or Balochistan, which was probably the most welcoming. Siting with Baloch and Sindhi friends just could not imagine that these wonderful Pakistanis can even think of working against Pakistan or even a Punjabi like me. On my last trip to Balochistan I found young Khuzdari gentlemen more caring for the old Punjabi than even my real family. Then why this narrative?

There is no denying that we do have problems and foreign powers are exploiting them. It is our weaknesses that allow others to take advantage of.

We created Pakistan for the people but somehow that state couldn’t deliver. State functionaries took the positions of the colonial masters and behaved like them, and we got snobbery without their dignity. Herman Hesse says, "We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person."

And the state machinery we inherited from the colonial rulers did a lot of that, more so in the poorer and more vulnerable places like Balochistan and Sindh..

Ever since the creation of Pakistan we showed special interest in getting involved in others wars usually for some petty benefits of our rulers. We got involved in the cold war, Afghan wars and even wars in Central Asia and Bosnia. Naturally a nation fighting wars abroad expects others to respond too and we became the battle ground of different far off wars. Now starting from India, Afghanistan, US, Iran and many other countries are directly involved in our matters and many of them planting, encouraging and funding our local separatists. Had our national cohesion not been that strong the mess we created could have been worse.

In our checkered political history constitution wasn’t always respected and we had many illegitimate rulers who used, bred and nurtured separatists for their political benefits damaging the cohesion of the state with the help and resources of the state. Wali Khan and his party was convicted of sedition and antistate activities by the court of law but rehabilitated by Gen Zia and used for its anti PPP fervor. He also fully supported the Sindhi separatist GM Syed and planted Altaf Hussain with all his violence to counter the political power of the party he had ousted illegally. These few examples should make the case sufficiently although books can be written about how this separatism was planted by the state functionaries. Later during Musharraf’s time again the weak MQM was revived and allowed to run havoc with the province and its people.

When systems break mafias and corruption rules, and that is something we did. Corruption crept in all corners of society and the common man suffered, those living farther away suffered more becoming easy targets for many foreign powers who recruited them for their motives. It is known in our bureaucracy that postings in Balochistan particularly are lucrative because it is the most corrupt, at the expense of a common man naturally.

What we have done to many parts of our country that even a person like me is forced to think why aren’t these people demanding separation. The only answer is that it is the love for Pakistan that these people still endure hoping to improve things in future.

Pakistani army like any other army of the world is a product of the society and its values. Nation provides it manpower by giving its children and nurtures it with its resources. Its like a son, loved and cared with  high expectations. Its successes are successes of the nation and so are its failures. It isn’t correct or desirable to portray the military as something different from the nation whether in a positive sense or otherwise.

It is true that military plays a role in keeping Pakistan together but that role is marginal. We live and stay together because we want to. Staying together in our interest and the interest of our future generations. I haven’t met many Pathans who want to be part of Afghanistan or Punjabis who want to join Khalistan or Baloch or Sindhis having such ideas although a small number might have been recruited by some foreign elements. Such exceptions are found everywhere in the world.

Having said that there are things we should do to counter this negative impression. After addressing the genuine grievances of our people it might be useful for our national army to drop its connections with the colonial past like priding in killing Tipu for East India Company. It might be a part of history but certainly not the part worth remembering or bragging. It was a dark chapter as mercenaries are not respected anywhere. In addition while celebrating our military heroes like Maj Aziz Bhatti and Col Sher Khan lets vilify the villains like Zia and Yahya.

Then we must build and strengthen its institutions and make state machinery subservient to the people working for their welfare. Quoting Mark Twain, "The Government is merely a servant - merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."

We are Pakistanis and proud of it. We are not put together by force like a herd of animals. We know we have problems but we are determined to solve them. Among the poor third world Pakistanis are the only immigrants who voluntarily return home from the west just for the sake of love of their country. The only place where force is used to keep people together is called a jail and Pakistan is certainly not that.

khanmomar@hotmail.com