By Sardar Khan Niazi
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa during his speech at the Defense and Martyrs day ceremony, held annually at the General Headquarters (GHQ) Rawalpindi on September 6 to commemorate the sacrifices of fallen heroes of the 1965 war, dedicated a major portion of his speech to political matters.
He said that it is regrettable that the politicians do not see the outstanding services of the armed forces in the right color. It has become their habit to drag the army into their vilification campaign.
During his speech, he said that he often wondered why the Indian army carried out the most human rights violations in the world but their people seldom make them the target of criticism. In contrast to that, our army which day and night remains busy in serving the nation is often made the subject of criticism,” he added.
According to him, the major reason for this has been the army’s interference in politics during the last 70 years, which is unconstitutional. This is why in February last year the army, after great deliberation, decided that it would never interfere in any political matter. I assure you we are strictly adamant on this and will remain so, he said.
The army chief said that instead of welcoming the army’s decision, many political leaders used very unfortunate and degrading language while making the army the target of severe criticism. To criticize the army is the right of political parties and the people, but they should be careful about the language used by them,” he said.
He said the army had initiated its process of catharsis and hoped that political parties would follow suit as well and reflect on their conduct. This is the truth that there have been mistakes in every institution, including political parties and civil society.
The statement by COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa that the Pakistan Army was not going to interfere in politics any longer came in the light of a series of happenings starting earlier this year, with the moving of a vote of no confidence against the PTI government, and followed by its ouster.
Political parties build an anti-Army narrative from which they try an escape later on. He said that a false narrative created after the 1918 general elections called PTI government a selected government and the PTI calls the current government an imported one.
Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa felt unhappy about the political parties’ habit of criticism, first after the 2018 general elections and then again, subsequent to the vote of no confidence this year, bringing to mind that whoever loses brands the other as either selected or imported. We need to reject this conduct,” he said.
Political stability is compulsory and the time has come for all political stakeholders to set aside their sense of self, learn from past mistakes, move forward, and take Pakistan out of this predicament, he emphasized. It is high time the nation abandon intolerance and espouse a truly democratic culture.
Victory and defeat are part of politics and every party will have to develop the strength to accept its victory as well as defeat so an elected government comes in the next election instead of an imported or selected one. He urged political stakeholders to set aside labels of imported and selected. He said that if Pakistan wanted to move forward then it would need to avoid fanaticism and the approach of not accepting.
The COAS said political parties should learn lessons from their mistakes so the nation could move forward. Gen Bajwa said the country was facing serious economic issues and no one party could take the country out of the financial crisis.
