‘Powerful Army’ Caught with its Pants Down
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Whenever the world media describes Pakistani Armed Forces, there’s always an almost-salutary sounding title preceding it: ‘Powerful’.
That is not because the Pakistan Army is being given a nod of approval for being militaristically powerful. It is to describe the Army’s power-hold that it wields over the Pakistani establishment: domestic society, foreign policy and everything in between. Like an Arab authoritarian regime, like a monarch of the old world.
Ruling over Pakistan for most of its existence, owning more businesses and land in Pakistan than any other institution or organization or entity, the Pakistan Army is indeed the most ‘powerful’ in context of its surroundings and environment and what it’s up against usually: rag tag bands of Baloch tribes, Taliban guerillas, a fat-in-the-middle Indian army, urban warlords and youth revolutionaries from Karachi.
It is easier to be powerful over a marginalized, weak-willed and subdued opponents: your own suppressed countrymen.
So it is no great surprise that one hears the Army’s knee-jerk reaction of “Gosh we didn’t know Bin Laden was living right under our nose!” Of course you didn’t know, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
They even made a third-rate political player turned President Mr Zardari to attach his name on a hastily written ‘clarification’ opinion article by the ISI for the Washington Post.
Of course the Army doesn’t know anything about what’s going on. The government doesn’t know. The people don’t know.
The only thing now the world knows is that Pakistan’s Powerful Army can’t even be trusted to be in control of its most important Cantonment, its highly pride, selective garrison town of Abbottabad.
Who do we, the ordinary citizens of Pakistan, the humble people trust now?
- Raghib
- Syed Obaidullah Madni
- Female Cadet
- Aye M
- shahid
- Rahim
- wahab
- Zuberi
- jay
- Khan
- Khan
- hansa