A Rift between Pakistan's Military and Government

  I also made a news report on this topic for ARY NEWS, have a look at it

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKx9BqR3P0&feature=g-all-u&context=G262098fFAAAAAAAAAAA

 
              
            Pakistan has seen decades of military rule, which understandably has created rivalry among Pakistan's military establishment and the civil government. It is obvious that there is huge trust deficit among Pakistan's present government and military. This trust deficit has become more apparent with the controversial memo case. We saw that while Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani was in China, Prime Minister gave an interview to Chinese newspaper, China Daily. PM stated in the interview that the affidavits presented directly to Supreme Court by DG ISI and the COAS for the memo case investigation were unconstitutional and illegal. This got a lot of attention on media as COAS was still in China. As a reaction of the interview, the information wing of military, ISPR, issued a press release, highly criticising PM's interview. The press release by ISPR stated that there could be no blame on COAS more serious than calling his actions unconstitutional. Immediately after issuance of ISPR's statement, the Prime Minister hurriedly took a decision which for a moment made us thought that there is actually going to be a military coup. PM, sacked the defence secretary and gave this position as additional charge to a well known and a qualified bureaucrat, Nargis Sethi. This action of PM, not only got huge coverage in the national media, but was widely reported in international media. Things got better when the PM the same evening, while talking to reporters said that the COAS had informed him before issuing the press release.

              Although it seems that things are getting better between the two, especially after President's meeting with the COAS, but in reality we know that the two very important entities are not on the same page. This tension among Pakistan's military and government and between the judiciary and government are disastrous for Pakistan. This creates anxiety among the public. People start fearing of an unpredictable future. And not only domestically, this badly tarnishes Pakistan's image worldwide. The investors get more suspicious of investing in Pakistan. Foreign companies already working in Pakistan become unsure about political stability.

             Only political stability in this country can bring economic stability. No matter how bad this government is, there should be no unconstitutional steps taken. Many analysts do believe that in current scenario there is no fear of a military coup, but the fear of this overwhelms the civilian government. And this fear is reflected when the PM, takes hasty decisions such as sacking of the defence secretary. We hope that our political and military leaders sit together and talk, negotiate and plan things privately for the betterment of Pakistan. By giving statements on media against each other, we make the world believe that we are not together and this is dangerous for Pakistan. 





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