Let’s Call the Army

The Army’s role has been criticized at all levels in the recent years for being unfair with the political fiber, blamed for not having given the democratically elected governments a fair chance to excel; in the past, they have thrown out  many elected governments, even the judiciary was ousted. The Army, being the ‘Big Daddy’ of the country, has been on the roll in most of the country matters, whereas the political parties have got in power many times to perform but never succeeded at any level to get popularity among the masses to retain the power. Eventually, the Army was asked to rescue the country from the deteriorating situation on several occasions.

Army – the most powerful and effective institution in the country – should keep playing its role to keep the country rolling on the right track. The elected people are time bound and are elected after every 5 years; so every time they come, they start from the scratch, and  devise new policies for their tenure. But for any country to prosper, consistency of policies is very important.

With a democratically elected government being in power for the last 5 years, let me hit some dots to see the way they are taking us to. The last government, with their allies, ruled the country for the whole 5 years, and other than lauding “democracy is the best revenge”, they have done nothing to strengthen its pillars. The institutions had gone to hopeless levels, where corruption rules. The economy has been gutted, the rupee value hitting its lowest point ever. Power outrages were on the high; the power being with the civilian government, they should have worked for the betterment of the people and their security, they should have given people the opportunities to excel, they should have created jobs for them, made education available for all to uplift the living standard of the people, to call them back from poverty if democracy is the solution as the world portrays. But, unfortunately, it was the other way round; they proved to be self-centered people, agents of the West, ignoring the Nation’s interests, and they all worked to fulfill their own desires, fill their own pockets, increase their bank balances multiple times, and ultimately,created property here and abroad. Consequently, they were rejected in the May 2013 General Elections. Still, the people, forced to believe in democracy and wanting it to flourish, move out to vote, and this time, it is the previous Opposition that gets the power.

With the new Government’s stance of ‘friendly neighborhood is beneficial for the region’, the PM insisted on good brotherly working relations with India countless times, and urged India to come to the table and resolve the issues through dialogue; but India, in the madness of power, seems ruthless, creating disturbance at the LoC by violating the  ceasefire at various sectors, killing our soldiers and civilians to provoke the tension, violating the water treaty, allowing water to create havoc in the rivers flowing to Pakistan, destroying vast acres of agricultureal land, the Indian media playing its role as usual, bombarding news and views against Pakistan to derail the process of dialogue that was  scheduled for the coming month.
On the other front, the Afghanistan conflict – an issue yet to be resolved asks a lot to keep things moving on the right directions, the Army has been immensely involved on that front as well. In a situation charged with internal instability, insurgency, conspiracies and what not, the Army plays a pivotal role to secure the national interest of the country.

The Army is also always called for rescue efforts, be it earthquakes or floods, the Local Administrations fail every time everywhere. The successive Governments have even failed to strengthen the local government system, and have kept on fighting to decide on what should be the right local government system.

Keeping in view all these engagements of the Army, some people are still not convinced by the Army’s role; the traitors on media, in particular, constantly raise voices against the Army to create hatred between the people and their soldiers. The Government, rather than backing the Army and standing with them shoulder to shoulder, creates hindrance in their way.

Now Karachi, a metropolitan port city that is a trade and economical hub of the country, faces serious concerns; the city raises its eyebrows on the current law and order situation. Target killings, extortion (Bhatta Mafia) mafia, kidnap for ransom, drug mafia, land mafia, foreign hand involvement,* and influx of weapons in the city has made things worst. The politicized Police has miserably failed to get control over the situation. Traders are threatened by bullets sent to them in packets with the slip forced to pay the sum or get ready to face the consequences. Keeping in view the situation in the metropolitan city, traders/ associations have raised their concerns to the government authorities at all level, but the Government did not respond effectively, and the traders at last resorted to publish an advertisement in the newspaper regarding the (Talaash e Gumshudgi e Hukumat) “Search for the Missing Government”. The political parties having stakes in the city: all have their militant wings operational. The most popular party of the city, being in the government for the last 10 years, did nothing to resolve these issues; because as you dig deep, you will find their hands at the back of these mafias.

The Army operated against the biggest political party of the city in the 90s, the same party is now calling the Army again for surgical operations. Do they want to make a Syria-like situation here as well? Knowing the massive engagements of the Army in the current regional situation, the political parties, rather than dismantling their mafias, taking responsibility of their people and working closely with them for restoring peace of the city, want to open another chapter for the Army to deal with. I doubt their intent.
I leave a question for you, – If the Army has all the solutions, what is the use of the democratically elected government if they are not capable of anything? Even the elected government calls on the Army for everything. Why are the people against the martial law  then?