Pakistan Army, Politicians & John Lennon --- Look at useless APC

jpdrain · September 30, 2011, 3:58pm

Pakistan Army, Politicians & John Lennon
“All Parties Conference recognized that there has to be a new direction and policy with a focus on peace and reconciliation. “Give peace a chance” must be the guiding central principle henceforth.” reads second point of the resolution passed after all parties conference (APC).
After recent congressional testimony of outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, in which he claimed Haqqani network as part of ISI, US-Pak relationship has hit a new low. US administration, for the first time, blamed Pakistan government and agencies for supporting Taliban against NATO.
In Pakistan it was taken as a major escalation and mass media stirred public into a frenzy. Popular talk show hosts on news channels started humming war songs. Retired army generals, morphed into defense analysts, populated these talk shows uplifting the war mania and drawing war games. Newspapers were decorated with expensive headlines of braggadocio. Conservative journalists and retired generals like Hamid Gul could be heard advising people to pull up their socks in anticipation of full fledge war against USA.
Amidst the media convulsions of warmongering and jingoism, ever complacent government announced to convene APC, apparent modus ope***** to build national consensus. Personally, I think this whole exercise is a contradiction of parliamentary system itself where consensus or national policy is formulated inside parliament.
For the sake of argument even if we take APC as a serious attempt to develop a national consensus, there are significant lacunae in this process. All of us know from prior experience that military top brass makes Pakistan’s foreign policy. Our collective memory is quite fickle. This whole exercise of consensus building in face of serious foreign threats and American aggressive posturing is nothing new. Similar circus was organized twice with in this calendar year. Once after Raymond Davis fiasco and again after Osama bin Laden’s (OBL) capture. In latter case, American troops came into Pakistan for military operation shattering all the illusions of our highly coveted and expensive defense. In each case media’s crazy wheel was spun, so-called “ghairat brigade” started seizing with anger, common person was all revved up and political parties came up with a policy statement. What happened next? Nada!
Real foreign policy of Pakistan is made in GHQ. Long before any APC or government could outline a policy guideline, a meeting of Corps commanders was held. That’s the real consensus building institution in Pakistan for any policy. It’s the meeting of these generals where all decisions are made and sanctioned. I have no doubt at all that these generals must have decided to direct the government to convene an APC for masking the military policy with civilian cover.
In all these cases of confrontations with USA, public is made fool by these generals. They poke their media stooges to spread anti-Americanism in the country, politicians are pushed to pass a tougher line of action and then use all of this mania as bargaining chip with USA. Nothing changed when Raymond Davis was quietly handed over with in hours after months of wrangling. All the hue and cry after OBL’s capture also resulted in zilch.
Nawaz Sharif being booted twice by army has lost all the love for them. During APC, he asked the ISI chief Gen Pasha “Where there is smoke there is fire. Why the whole world is criticizing us for supporting these fighters?” Instead of the person addressed, Jamat-e-Islami’s chief Munawar Hassan rebuked Nawaz “You need to understand the situation” Then COS Gen Pervaiz Kiyani intervened “ We will answer all your queries.” This is the political history of our nation in short hand. Army calls all the shots and never ever takes civilians in confidence. Who comes to their defense?Mullahs! This Military Mullah alliance is the root of our utter social decadence and failure as a state. So I doubt there will be any change after this APC as well.
Now lets get back to “give peace a chance”. This phrase has been specifically mentioned, in quotes, in the final resolution. After the conference, Imran Khan’s entourage was boasting of their importance in preparation of the joint communiqué.