Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

[ekumunng]

(Reuters) - At Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s palatial offices in Islamabad this week, the army chief sat down to deliver the head of government a message he did not want to hear: The time for talks with the troublesome Pakistani Taliban was over.

Sharif came to power a year ago promising to find a peaceful settlement with the Islamist militant group, but as round after round of talks failed, the powerful armed forces favoured a military solution.

Their patience finally ran out and, late on Tuesday afternoon, during a tense meeting, the army effectively declared it would override a crucial plank of the government’s strategy and take matters into its own hands.

“The army chief and other military officers in the room were clear on the military’s policy: the last man, the last bullet,” a government insider with first-hand knowledge of the meeting told Reuters.

Asked to sum up the message General Raheel Sharif wanted to convey at the gathering, he added: “The time for talk is over.”

The next day, Pakistani forces launched rare air strikes against militants holed up in the remote, lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border. It is not clear whether Sharif authorised the operation.

On Thursday, they backed that up with the first major ground offensive against the Taliban there, undermining Sharif’s year-long attempt to end a bloody insurgency across his country through peaceful means.

Disagreement over the militant threat is the latest row to flare up between the government and military, and relations between the two branches of power are at their lowest ebb for years, according to government officials.

The government did say talks with the Taliban would go on.

“We will talk with those who are ready for it and the (military) operation is being launched against those who are not ready to come to the negotiating table,” spokesman Pervez Rashid told local media on Thursday.

But the operations put the military, which has a long record of intervening in civilian rule through plots and coups, firmly back at the centre of Pakistan’s security policy.

The balance of power is shifting at a time when foreign troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, and arch-rival India has just elected a Hindu nationalist leader promising to be more assertive on the international stage.

“This is the clearest signal yet that the army will dictate its terms now,” a member of Sharif’s cabinet said.

Pakistani government feels weight of army’s heavy hand | Reuters

[KKF]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

army's move against the Talibans was long overdue and quite expected since the arrival of the new army chief, RaHeel Shareef.

Indian Express also reports that army will not allow N$ to go to India to attend Modi's inaugural ceremony. most people on GS think that N$ should go because all other SARC nations are meeting there as well. it will be beneficial for Pakistan, imo.

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

All power to the army or they can rid Pakistan from the intolerant bigots. Any operation should be precise, and across the board (no differentiation of good and bad Taliban).

[ekumunng]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

It should be a civilian govt. going all out against the terrorists. Its irony that Army will take the lead not the govt. and in the end it will be a half-hearted effort resulting in more displaced people than anything else.

At this in Islamabad, Egos are running very high and it is costing the nation in many ways. Talks with TTP were never a good option, that period only gave them chance to spread-out, hide in cities and attack across the country.

*About NS visit to India
*
I think its better to send the President to the ceremony, it's just a formality. Pakistan will not gain anything from this so the head of state will do the job for the sake of it.

[Sachaydino]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

It should be a civilian govt. going all out against the terrorists. Its irony that Army will take the lead not the govt. and in the end it will be a half-hearted effort resulting in more displaced people than anything else.

At this in Islamabad, Egos are running very high and it is costing the nation in many ways. Talks with TTP were never a good option, that period only gave them chance to spread-out, hide in cities and attack across the country.

*About NS visit to India * I think its better to send the President to the ceremony, it's just a formality. Pakistan will not gain anything from this so the head of state will do the job for the sake of it.

I have never been supporter of unilateral army action and bulldozing of civilian government. In this case army is right about Taliban and other terrorists who created havoc in past killing thousands of innocent people. I don't understand why NS and IK were bent on negotiations with these animals. They should have been cleaned out a long time ago by the army in Mush's rule. On the other hand NS should visit India to attend the ceremony. He has to override the resistance of army if any. He should not succumb to army pressure on this. I think whole parliament will support him on this visit.

[khoji]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

army's move against the Talibans was long overdue and quite expected since the arrival of the new army chief, RaHeel Shareef.

**Indian Express **also reports that army will not allow N$ to go to India to attend Modi's inaugural ceremony. most people on GS think that N$ should go because all other SARC nations are meeting there as well. it will be beneficial for Pakistan, imo.

I thought it was quite clear that we shouldn't rely on Indian outlets for news about Pakistan. Especially when it involves Nawaz and Pak army. Because Pak army is considered rogue by Indians, and Nawaz is their favorite boy.

Nawaz is not in army's control. He will take decision on his own.
He should be man enough to accept responsibilities, instead of blinking his eyes like a little kid, saying he did not know about Kargil, or that it was Sartaj Aziz (not him) who froze foreign assets in his last government.

[khoji]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

"Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand"

This heading seems to show Nawaz government as an innocent sheep, and army as powerful wolves or something.
but in reality, army is answering the call of the Pakistani nation. It is going after the barbarian cult whom Nawaz government has been trying to save by whatever means necessary.

[kchughtai]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

I don't understand why would army not want NS to go to India? What is the basis of this perception?

[kchughtai]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

The only ones who are trying to stop NS are hafiz saeed and JI

[KKF]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

Hafiz Saeed is afraid of being traded during the meeting! :D

[Jolie]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

It should be a civilian govt. going all out against the terrorists. Its irony that Army will take the lead not the govt. and in the end it will be a half-hearted effort resulting in more displaced people than anything else.

At this in Islamabad, Egos are running very high and it is costing the nation in many ways.** Talks with TTP were never a good option, that period only gave them chance to spread-out, hide in cities and attack across the country.**

Err, what makes you think that period didn't give army the time to prepare, restrain and locate them?

In virtually all military history, it's so typical for sides to sign temporary truce with a clear intention of preparing for war. This is how some of the best battles are won! There's always so much to detente and diplomacy than meets the eye - it's one of those things public at that time never finds out. The real story always comes out later.

I think it's getting quite tedious and tiring to see Pakistanis just speculating, hypothesizing and guesstimating the worse for sake of it. Are we really so desperate for military-civilian confrontation?

[hanibal]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

Err, what makes you think that period didn't give army the time to prepare, restrain and locate them?

In virtually all military history, it's so typical for sides to sign temporary truce with a clear intention of preparing for war. This is how some of the best battles are won! There's always so much to detente and diplomacy than meets the eye - it's one of those things public at that time never finds out. The real story always comes out later.

So true,

on top of that, in winter, it is difficult for army to move with all its gadgets and air-strikes are also dependent on the weather... so Army+Civil govt did well to engage them in dialogues and bought all the time they wanted...

Plus to me it is more like good cop/bad cop game, Pak can divide and break them...

[Jolie]

Re: Pakistani government feels weight of army's heavy hand

Pakistan(is) are becoming increasingly anti-intellectual day by day because of their manic fetish for scandalmongering and scaremongering. Sometimes, I wonder - wrongly or rightly - that it must be quite upsetting to be a young person in Pakistan because you are exposed to nothing but mounts pessimism and negativity all the time that are guarded and revered by sullen and defeatist faces from previous generation. It's no wonder the generations before couldn't do anything for Pakistan, they all collectively let Pakistan down, and today they have the audacity to tell the young minds that are very sorry for Pakistan, and care for it by spitting more pessimism and negativity on her. I think Pakistan youth is better off immersing in the history and heritage of Kuffar, and empower their souls with knowledge, enrich their minds with enlightenment, and arm themselves with unbeatable hope. It pains me to a great deal when I think hows Pakistani don't value history. Someone in Pakistan needs to man up and totally scrap the history curriculum and replace it European history. Teach everything form A-Z about Europe from medieval to modernity. They'll learn a thing or two about nation building, and patience.

Oh dear, I digress. Anyway, back to topic.

I think it's so easy to throw the word operation as if we're talking about Call of Duty here. Do people realise it probably takes months long extremely risky surveillance before locating and taking out the target? FATA is part of Pakistan, and FATA will be Pakistan's back door against an hostile Afghanistan and proxy aggressive neighbours from India to Iran. So yes, Pakistan army is not stupid enough to launch carpet bombing and guerilla warfare in FATA, lose their men, cause complete material destruction and lose vital tribal support the took good previous 5-6 years to reconcile. Pakistanis should actually feel proud of their military's ability to launch sophisticated, highly effective and relatively costless and bloodless strikes that does the job. Anyone's who's studied warfare would tell you that ability to do that is a sign of highly astute and advance army.

Full power to Pakistan army for holding on and moving on, on its own and not acting like blood lusting suicidal Arab militarise. Any Pakistani who fancies "full blown out operations" is free to tune into Al-Jazeera and take pride in situation in Syria.