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| See-saw game continues between Sharif and Army in Pakistan | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 28: Whenever the Army in Pakistan come to the conclusion that the civilian regime has started enjoying the upper hand senior Army functionaries, especially the Army chief, raise objections to Islamabad's plan on improving ties with New Delhi
This way, during peace time, the Army in Pakistan has shown its expertise in triggering border conflict either by pushing groups of militants into Jammu and Kashmir or by violating ceasefire agreement.
Now it seems that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has succumbed to the pressure mounted by the top Army functionaries and that is the reason for Sharif to appoint a retired Lt General as National Security Adviser.
The appointment of Lieutenant General (retd) Nasir Janjua as National Security Adviser evoked a response from across the political spectrum that has almost become cliched by now - that the military has come to dominate foreign policy and internal security processes completely. It is quite common to hear that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has completely abdicated his position as the chief executive of the State, and by constitutional privileges, the one who is in charge of internal and external security matters.
The gradual retreat of Nawaz Sharif's Government from policy making has been visible from the start of his third tenure. The man - who in his last days as leader of the opposition against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Government, and in the early days of his current tenure as Prime Minister - was quite vocal in his desire to normalise relations with India, now shows no signs that he understands the implications of genuine rapprochement with India. Although some of his party members do understand that headway made on the path of normalisation would immensely increase the space for civilian leadership to restructure the political arrangements within the country and eclipse the military's dominant role in public policy making.
There is every reason to believe that army's leadership, too, clearly understands its decreasing weight in the domestic political arrangements whenever genuine signs of rapprochement appear on the horizon. It is not at all a surprise that during the last 10 years the army has repeatedly shot down the proposal to increase trade and commercial relations with India - the only proposals which could have led to normalised relations.
In the words of several retired diplomats , the army, in its post-Pervez Musharraf return-to-civilian-governance era, has wanted to use the dialogue process with India - which continued somewhat intermittently during the PPP Government - as a tool for conflict avoidance only. It wants to obstruct the civilian leadership from going beyond this limited objective. So the PPP Government during its five-year tenure had to walk a diplomatic tight rope.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, however, found an easy way out of the complexities of these power politics. He completely withdrew from his position towards India after coming under pressure from a crisis that threatened the stability of his Government, and which was generally believed to be masterminded by the army's intelligence agencies. Hard-hitting speeches and statements against India, marking incidents of exchange of fire on the international boundary, have increasingly brought him back into the kind of nationalistic fold the security establishment is comfortable with. Going to multilateral forums to complain against India has also become a defining position of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Government towards India.
Hence for the very survival of any civilian Government in Islamabad and for ensuring Army's hegemony in Pakistan the establishment in Islamabad and the top brass of the Army have to toe anti-India policy. And the only issue that has been helping both the civilian regime in Pakistan and its Army is the unsettled Kashmir. The Kashmir issue is a convenient tool in the hands of civilian Government and the Army in Pakistan for hammering India.
Both the Army and the civilian regime know it well that Kashmir issue has defied any solution and hence the only way to garner peoples' support was by raking up the issue at the national and international forums. |
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