Niazi Pathans from the dustbowl district of Mianwali have made the deep-state Pakistani 'establishment’ (Pakistani Military) queasy, once too often. It is not just the hugely successful and debonair cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan, but also the once decorated, bombastic, and ultimately shamed, barrel-chested Pakistani General AAK Niazi (aka ‘Tiger Niazi’, ‘Butcher of Dhaka’, etc,) who ultimately made the Pakistani Military, uneasy.
Self-justifying ways of the Niazi duo led to them disowning their colourful pasts (Lt Gen AAK Niazi was accused of moral turpitude and corruption beyond the unpardonable shame of surrender while the Lothario-like ways of Imran were cleverly flipped to suggest Pathan machoism and bravado!)
Both ‘rewrote’ history via Pakistan: A Personal History (Imran) and The Betrayal of East Pakistan (AAK Niazi), unconvincingly. Their flamboyance notwithstanding, both the Niazis had counterintuitively turned to extreme religiosity to contextualise their public image and narrative.
Ironically, both were once valourised and feted by the ‘establishment’ and when true to their Pathan instincts, they got too big for their boots, both were publicly indicted and banished for their unbecoming conduct.
Both blamed the Pakistani Military Chiefs in the 'establishment’ for their removal—AAK Niazi blamed General Yahya Khan and Imran Khan blames General Qamar Bajwa and his successor General Asim Munir. Willy-nilly, the Niazi grouse resonates well with the rallying cry of their fellow clansmen in the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), “Yeh joh dehshatgardi hai, iske peeche wardi hai” (Those in uniform, are behind the mess!).
Men of Pakistani Military
Indeed, the surreptitious ways of the ‘establishment’ have earned the Niazi duo many other pejoration like Khalai Maqlooq (or Aliens, as per Nawaz Sharif to imply ‘establishments’ invisible hand in his removal, earlier) or even the deliberate mock of 'Neutrals’ (taking the mickey out of General Qamar Bajwa’s claim of institutional neutrality).
Yet, despite relentless attacks by varied politicians of all hues and persuasions, not winning any war for Pakistan ever, or with multiple shadowy intrigues and supersessions within—the Pakistani Military had historically and consistently posited a united front, perhaps, the only one in Pakistan.
Despite many boorish Military men (Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, etc), darkly puritanical (eg, Zia-ul-Haq), vile and unhinged (Pervez Musharraf, Hamid Gul, etc,) the reputation and perception of the Pakistani Military remained revered and respected in the public imagination of Pakistan, and the institution was considered a rare modicum of stability and unity in a fast-faltering nation.
Not anymore. Chinks are now reflected in the langar gup (loose talk) surrounding the 'establishment’ corridors. The eerie dissonance seems to match the overall imploding fate of Pakistan.
It’s not just the cornered Imran Khan, but even the incumbent Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif who inadvertently stoked divide within the ‘establishment’ with his ostensible defense of the current Chief of the Pakistani Army General Asim Munir as the “first army chief to be appointed on merit in Pakistan”.
This puts into question the criteria used by his party supremo and elder brother Nawaz Sharif when he chose the six Pakistani Chiefs under his watch, earlier.
However beyond the salvos fired by wily politicians, tensions within the ‘Uniformed’ fraternity with the mishandling of Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (the removal from DG-ISI to Corps Commander to his untimely resignation), Major (Retd) Adil Raja’s explosive claims of honey traps used by the institution, Nawaz Sharif’s rants against proposed ‘Tabdeeli’ project by former Intelligence Chiefs Lt Gen Shuja Pasha and Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, to former Pakistani COAS General Qamar Bajwa’s mudslinging with the enfant terrible of Pakistani politics ie, Imran Khan (or Imran Niazi, as Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif insists to remind the public of auto-equivalence with AAK Niazi’s treachery.)
The starch, spit-and-polish of the Pakistani Military ‘Uniform’ with the choona-lined cantonments no longer looks as orderly and disciplined, as before.
Imran-Army Dichotomy Grounds Establishment
The undeniable rise of Imran Khan in public imagination, especially after his forced ouster at the behest of the ‘establishment’ has compounded perception issues for the Pakistani Military. Suddenly, the entitled ‘fat-cat’ image of the Pakistani Generals (serving or retired) amidst the socio-economic meltdown ensuing in Pakistan, is railing and irritating the masses against the Pakistani Military and its believed overreach and privileges, beyond professional soldering.
Social media for once is agog with the restoration of participative democracy (read, fresh elections) and for the Pakistani soldiers to stay at the Line of Control (or even, at the more restive, Durand Line) or else, confine themselves to the barracks.
The halo and sheen of ‘Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah’ (literally, A follower of none but Allah, the fear of Allah, Jihad for Allah—hardly the sort of wordsmithing that befits a professional Military), no longer cuts ice with the beleaguered Pakistani masses for either piety, austerity, or commitment to the Pakistani future.
Pressure has mounted on the so far reclusive and restrained Pakistani COAS General Asim Munir on the future course he charts, hereinafter. He would know that his bete noire Imran Khan (Niazi) would romp home in elections if held now. Munir has his own complicated past with Imran Khan given that Imran was responsible for Munir’s premature marching orders from the coveted post of DG-ISI, earlier.
Asim Munir’s Conflict in Furthering Gen Bajwa’s Legacy
Though Munir cannot be seen to be siding disproportionately towards the PML-N/PPP combine considering their own excesses, unpopularity, and inadequacies, the ball to potentially initiate court-martial against Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (though now retired) is on Munir’s unwilling shoulders, given that he would know about Hameed’s less-than-exacting conduct too.
To an extent, Munir is also morally beholden to the finally retired (with a three-year extension) General Qamar Bajwa for passing the baton onto him. Unfortunately for him, times have also changed drastically, and social media is the uncontrollable beast that disallows General Yahya-like brouhaha of calling politicians ‘a pack of jokers’ in an unsubstantiated and blustering manner, anymore.
The situation in Pakistan is precariously akin to checking into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and knowing that procrastination is not an option anymore and that a defined line of treatment is expected by the masses—Munir is stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
The dangerous ‘divide’ have seeped into the rarefied and protected air of Pakistani cantonments, and these could implode like all other elements of Pakistani governance are undergoing eg, civilian politicians, clergy, bureaucracy, or even the judiciary. Pakistani Military for once, runs the real risk of looking no different from the other arms of Pakistani governance, and this augurs terribly and dangerously for its historical notions of stability and unity.
(The author is a Former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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