The army deserves respect because it defends the country’s geographical borders providing security to the people. It also secures the country from terrorists. Scores of army men die every year in the line of duty. It is on account of their sacrifices that the rest of their countrymen have the satisfaction of being protected.
This said, there is also a flip side of the affair. Army generals with Bonapartist tendencies have thrice overthrown civilian governments, violated human rights and mismanaged economy, while two of them made the country fight wars on the behest of the US with dire consequences for both the civilian population and the army. During the quasi democratic 1990’s money was distributed at the behest of an army chief among one set of politicians to defeat a party not liked by the establishment.
One agrees with the ISPR on the need to keep the armed forces out of political discourse in the “best interest of the country”. One can also understand that the army takes ‘strong exception’ to attempts made to drag its leadership in political discourse. For nearly three years the PTI government followed pernicious economic policies, allowed mafias to plunder the country and persecuted its political opponents while reminding every now and then that the government and establishment were on the same page. There was no attempt on the part of the concerned quarters to distance themselves from the policies. A group of duly approved retired army officers were tuned into media commentators who regularly tom-tommed PTI’s policies and defended Imran Khan.
The social media campaign against the army and its leadership has been launched by the erstwhile PTI favourites who had been spoilt by over-indulgence. They think that the PTI’s allies as well as a number of party’s dissenters parted company with their government at the behest of the establishment leading to a successful no confidence move and the fall of Imran Khan’s government. Used to responding to their political opponents with coarse language, they are using the same vocabulary while referring to their erstwhile patrons. The misuse of social media to launch a vituperative campaign against the army leadership is unfortunate and needs to be urgently stopped.
