The decision pertaining to Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa’s extension was made nearly a year and a half ago, according to journalists Aizaz Syed and Umar Cheema. In 2021, the military decided against both intervention in politics, as well as offering the army chief an extension.
Will General Bajwa seek a second extension?
Speaking during an episode of the YouTube channel Talk SHOCK, Cheema said that sources close to Gen Bajwa say that he is all-set to retire from his post, and frequently talks about retiring soon. The COAS also allegedly talks about how his elder son Barrister Saad was unhappy with him over his earlier extension and still directs taunts towards him on that front even now, even though he says he was never in favor of getting an extension, nor did he ask for one. Gen Bajwa says he was told by then Prime Minister Imran Khan about his extension a day after the development.
Cheema commented that the army chief may have wished for an extension but he never asked for it. The chief of the armed forces substantiates his point by saying that had he sought an extension, the necessary file work would have been done already, and the issue would not have had to reach the Supreme Court, causing embarrassment to the military.
Syed revealed that the former Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) General Faiz Hameed had a major role to play in Gen Bajwa’s extension and was constantly in contact with Imran Khan’s principal secretary Azam Khan regarding the same. He was the one who got the notification issued. At this, Cheema remarked that the reason Hameed wanted an extension for Bajwa was because it would elevate him in the seniority list once latter retired in three years’ time.
Has the military gone ‘neutral’?
Cheema says the military had decided not to intervene in politics in the formation commanders meeting held in Feb-March of 2021. This was prior to Senate elections, and it was the time when Nawaz Sharif’s narrative was creating a sense in the military that the army was no longer a force for the people, but rather a force for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The notion that the military was behind Imran’s premiership and was trying his rivals in the courts was also gaining strength. The army, to end this impression once and for all, decided to part ways with politics, the journalist said. The military was also worried about the allegations of enforced disappearances, which it believed were being leveled more easily due to the political intervention it engaged in.
It was for the same reasons that General Hameed was removed; he too had wanted to head an armed corps so that he could eventually run for the post of the army chief. Cheema said that although the decision to pull out of politics was made in Feb-March, but the more you are involved in something, the harder it is to leave it.
So, Cheema maintained, Imran kept delaying the removal of General Faiz all the way till September and October. But once it happened, the intervention gradually decreased and so did the harassment. He said that the PTI has been a beneficiary of this situation, by saying it has put the military on the back foot. On one hand, Cheema said, it taunts the army for ‘going neutral’ while on the other, it tries to insinuate that the army is on the coalition government’s side. At the same time, the coalition government feels that the military still has a soft corner for Imran Khan.
‘Better clean up the mess!’
While replying to a question, Cheema ruled out a complete exit of the military from politics as “you can’t say anything for sure for the powerful.” He also said that when Gen Bajwa was asked about his retreat, he pointed at the various controversial developments during his term, and that he should clean it up as well and not burden the incoming chief.
But in case the incoming chief is of his choosing, the current policies may continue in future. Syed opined that in order for the military to maintain its prestige, it must stay away from politics. The politicians too should do what they are supposed to. Both the journalists agreed that politicians needed to learn to perform and only then there would be a lesser role of army in politics.
Political engineering has its costs on the political spectrum hence its a poison for a rising democracy. In this instant a strategist decided to use Bajwa as a bulwark to further his aim to be the next COAS and to give rise to a decade of fascism winning extension clause and in cahoots with a desperate and populist leader carved out of a national hero by corrupting his soul.
Imagine if Faiz Hameef was not directly called out by NS and Bajwa and other high command would not have realised for what they were being used for and tried to redeem themselves in the eyes of the nation.
Damage to political institutions is clear that after the 2018 election IK would have had to shake hand with either PPP or PMLN and ditch the military’s political tool of chor chor narrative to create a working relationship and perhaps PPP/PTI coalition would have served the nation on leftist agenda while the conservatives right would sit in opposition and chided them. A few stints of right and left governance and Pakistan would rise.
But instead the military is divided as others had to stand up to corner Faiz and his poopy self serving agenda. The politics is partisan and not in national interest. Youth is confused and demoralised. Mature generation are aghast. Poor are worse off and country is trying to evade a default.
Who is the winner? Bury this political engineering once for all and stand up with the institutions for it. Help them to get rid of this cancer. Say NO to political engineering.