Lt-Gen Bhopinder Singh

Gen.Raheel Sharif’s anti-corruption drive and the resultant moral high ground puts him in a position of strength vis-a- vis Nawaz Sharif. Given the history of Pakistan’s civil-army ties, it remains to be seen which Sharif will finally emerge as the winner.

Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif attends a change of command ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan. AFP

Civil-military shadowboxing is an old hat in Pakistan, with a brazen democracy-be-damned approach of the Pakistani generals who have formally ruled for 36 out of the 69 years of independence. In 1958, the first Pakistani President Iskandar Mirza dismissed the government of the day and appointed his Commander-in-Chief Ayub Khan as the Martial Law Administrator, only to see Ayub depose Iskandar Mirza within 13 days and assume Presidentship. In 1976, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto handpicked a “safe” Mohajir, Zia-ul-Haq as his Chief of Staff — only to get executed by his protégé within two years. Later in 1991, Nawaz Sharif too would pull the wrong bunny out of the hat and install the third-in-line Pervez Musharraf as his Chief of Army Staff, only to get ousted and exiled by Musharraf by end-2000.Circa 2016 is no different — serendipitous namesakes representing the two conflicting sides of the Pakistani establishment, with Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister in Islamabad to General Raheel Sharif ensconced in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, hardly 20 km down the Muree Road. Tell-tale signs of mutual and institutional discomfort between the two revolve around the appropriation as the principal voice on the two vectors that dominate Pakistani narrative, internal administration (read, security and corruption) and external affairs (ummah and Kashmir) — on both accounts, the politico/civil classes are on the backfoot against the steely frame of the ramrod straight, medal-chested and martially mustachioed Raheel Sharif leading the battle of perceptions, by miles. In feudal Pakistan, Punjabi lineage with a war-decorated family to boot (Raheel Sharif’s elder brother Major Rana Shabbir Sharif, was the recipient of Pakistan’s highest gallantry award, Nishan-e-Haider), rolls more generously in the desperate eyes of the Pakistani masses than Nawaz Sharif’s stock that features, amongst other infamies, in the recent Panama expose.  Pakistan’s official warrant of precedence puts the Chief of Army Staff, Raheel Sharif at Article 6 or below 26 other constitutional appointments, (including some like Deputy Speaker to the National Assembly or Chairman Consultative Committee on economic policy and even below advisors and special assistants to the Prime Minister)  — however, constitutional propriety does not count for much in Pakistan and with Raheel Sharif making a dash to Washington, Riyadh, Beijing or Kabul at his free will to iron-fence the contours of Pakistani foreign policy, everyone knows who the real McCoy in Pakistan is. The first port of calling in Pakistan for the newly elected President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani in 2014, was the “Army House” and not the Prime Minister or the President. For a nation reeling under simultaneous tumults of economic, sectarian and terror related severities — it is critical to be seen as decisive, assertive and authoritative. His unmistakable fingerprints in devising the Zarb-e-Azb operations in 2014 to take on the might of the Taliban, devising the National Action Plan (NAP), bringing the rogue elements in Karachi under control and making his omnipresence felt from Baluchistan to the Swat valley has given him a cult-like status as the ultimate vanguard to all ills afflicting Pakistan.Raheel Sharif has now upped the ante with a move that promises moral high ground vis-à-vis the politicos on the sticky ground of corruption — his recent dismissal from service of six army officers, including a Lt-Gen, a Maj-Gen, three brigadiers and a Lt-Col is unprecedented in the scale and seniority of the Stalinistic purge. Such an action is in sharp contrast to the dilly-dallying of the civilian authorities who tom-tom the dithering sub-continental line of “political conspiracy”, whilst the hapless masses struggle to comprehend the legitimate brilliance of a Nawaz Sharif whose officially declared assets go up from Rs 166 million in 2011 to around Rs 2 billion in a span of four years (obviously, not including the Panama count). Such negative perceptions of civil/politico capabilities have allowed the open encroachment of the military uniforms in the judicial domain with the codification and institutionalisation of the supremacy through “general-heavy” apex committees, and no one complains. Credible conspiracy theorists attribute this undeclared coup of sorts to the backroom mechanisations that do not shy away from using the services of an alternative political platforms like Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf or Tahir Ul Qadri’s followers to arm-twist Nawaz Sharif with a popular and pliant political alternative. The recent surge in Raheel Sharif’s popularity has emboldened him to position his trusted confidantes in key positions like the ISI head, Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar or more crucially with the appointment of his fellow clansmen, Lt- Gen Naseer Khan Janjua as the NSA — the civilian corridors of powers are increasingly seeing burly soldiers who have shed their military fatigues and adorn the civilian-appropriate attires. The image overdrive for Raheel Sharif is carefully crafted, communicated and choreographed by the Army’s public relations wings — Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) — timely snippets of the Army Chief and his swagger across the nation are regularly bombarded via a twitter handle that has the subscription equivalent to the combined numbers of the top three English newspapers!Perhaps the only high-profile visitor to give General Raheel Sharif a miss in Pakistan was the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the subsequent confusion and frustration emanating from the perennial “one-step-forward-and-two-steps-behind” reality can be attributed to the limited mandate of the other Sharif, Nawaz Sharif to deliver on his word and intent — a reality check of the actual space for the civil/politicos to take independent decisions on domestic and foreign policy matters. Unlike the 1980s, when General Zia-ul-Haq appropriated religion as an means of relevance and assertion — it is a space that is now occupied by mullahs who are inimical to both the civil/politico classes, as indeed to the military and its generals —hence, the “moral high-ground” is the definitive space that subsumes the laundry list of woes besetting Pakistan’s masses today (e.g. controlling bloody violence, corruption and secessionist tendencies). Fear of international opprobrium may restrain Raheel Sharif from doing a Pervez Musharraf immediately, but with the retirement deadline of Raheel Sharif in September 2016 looming large, the real Sharif may actually stand up soon, and formally so. The writer is a former Lt-Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands & Puducherry

OP Dhankar brings soil to Dhakla village in Jhajjar. Tribune photo

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Dhakla (Jhajjar), May 3

Nearly a century after a Haryana braveheart laid down his life fighting for the British in Egypt, the soil from the grave of the World War-I hero was brought to his native village today.Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Om Prakash Dhankar brought the soil from the grave of Risaldar Badlu Ram, a recipient of the Victoria Cross, to Jhajjar this morning amid raising of patriotic slogans by locals.The soil was later taken to his native village, Dhakla, in a procession. Dhankar laid the foundation stone of the Badlu Ram Memorial as contingents of the Army and police fired a volley of shots into the air.The minister said an official delegation from the state had gone to Egypt to participate in a seminar on “Sustainable farming and water management during climate change”. “I got a chance to visit a war memorial to Indian soldiers who had sacrificed their lives during World War-I. I feel proud to have brought back a symbol of Badlu Ram from the Heliopolis War Cemetery in Cairo (Egypt),” said Dhankar.

Got Victoria Cross

• Badlu Ram was deputed as Risaldar in 14th Murray’s Jat Lancers of the British Army in Palestine during World War-1
• On September 23, 1918, his squadron came under heavy machine-gun fire from a hillock occupied by 200 infantry
• Badlu Ram and six others captured the position but was mortally wounded. He was later buried in a cemetery in Egypt and awarded Victoria Cross posthumously.

Jammu, April 29

Army Public School (APS), Jammu Cantonment, celebrated the 33rd Raising Day of the Army Welfare Education Society (AWES) on the school premises today.A special morning assembly was conducted to mark the significance of the day. The assembly commenced with the address by Pallavi Sharma, TGT (science), wherein she threw light on the foundation of the AWES, its history and the initiatives taken by it in imparting education up to Class XII and thereafter in various disciplines of education in professional colleges run by the AWES.A series of activities and competitions at various levels were conducted. A card-making competition was organised for students of Class IX to XII on the topic “Patriotic fervour”.Bindiya Narain, president, AWWA, 26 Infantry Division, was the chief guest. Among others present on the occasion were Chander Kanta Singh, vice-president, AWWA, Chanchal Padha, counsellor, and Runa Singh.Earlier, the programme began with the customary lighting of lamp by the chief guest and other dignitaries. — TNS

Owen Bennett-Jones
Whereas the Indian state has controlled militancy in Deo­bandi institutions, the Pakistani state has done the oppositE

HERE’S a tale of two madarsas: one Deoband north of Delhi, the other in Akora Khattak, Pakistan. Today in Deoband, at the madarsa where it all began in 1866, the 4,000 students focus on religion. The institution was created to preserve a purist, back-to-basics interpretation of Islam and it has remained true to that purpose. Whenever the Indian government offers the madarsa funds the clerics decline the money: they don’t want changes to the curriculum that would come with government funding.In 2008, some 20,000 Deobandi clerics from around India agreed on a declaration condemning terrorism. And for good measure they threw in a pledge of loyalty to the Indian state. The seminary has even instructed all Muslim households to hoist the Indian flag over their homes each Independence Day. A recent fatwa said that while it would be wrong to worship the Indian motherland, it was permissible to love it.Akora Khattak’s Deobandi Islam is different from the Indian variety.That’s not to say that the Deoband seminary is a moderate institution. The madarsa has specific departments dedicated to the rejection of Christianity, Judaism, even Shia Islam and Barelvism. Not to mention a whole postgraduate course dedicated to loathing Ahmadis.To protect their faith, Deoband’s clerics have retreated into a citadel of literalist and exclusionary doctrine. Some of the students would like a little more mainstream teaching to improve their job prospects. But the institution prefers that its protégés study religion, graduate and then go on to propagate the Deobandi worldview by establishing new madarsas in India and around the world.When students have been tempted to stray into militancy, the Indian state has been quick to lay down the law. For example, when the Kashmir insurgency was at its height, some of Deoband’s Kashmiri students flirted with using violence to advance their cause. The Indian state did not hesitate to give them long prison sentences. By all accounts the justice meted out to them was pretty rough and ready — but it served its purpose: today Kashmiri students in Deoband steer clear of politics.I recently met a Kashmiri student in Deoband and asked him if he wanted Kashmiri independence.

“Yes,” he said.

“Would you fight for it?”“No,” he replied. “I will go back to Kashmir only to teach the Quran.”When I suggested that Kashmiri students in Pakistani Deobandi madarsas might be a little more assertive than that, he shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know anything about that,” he said.Such quietist attitudes can also be found amongst some of Pakistan’s Deobandis. But there is also a militant strain of Pakistani Deobandism. Take, as perhaps the prime example, the Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak.In 1947, Sami ul Haq’s father, a cleric from Deoband who got stuck in Pakistan during Partition, started out with just eight pupils. Today, there are some 3,000 students. Sami ul Haq recently published a book in which he lays out his views on global affairs. These include the claims that the Afghan Taliban provided good government, that Osama bin Laden was an “ideal man” and that Al-Qaeda never existed. He has said that if his students wish to take a break from their studies to fight alongside the Afghan Taliban, then it is not for him to stand in their way. He awarded Mullah Omar an honorary degree. And let’s not forget that key conspirators in the plot to assassinate Benazir Bhutto met in advance in Akora Khattak.When it comes to militancy, then Sami ul Haq’s Deobandism is very different to the Indian version. The question is why Pakistani Deobandism as represented by Akora Khattak has so quickly diverged from the attitudes prevalent in the mother institution in Deoband itself.The answer lies in the contrasting attitudes and policies of the Indian and Pakistani states. Whereas the Indian state has controlled militancy in Deo­bandi institutions, the Pakistani state has done the opposite. As a senator for many years, Sami ul Haq can even be considered a member of the Pakistani establishment. He has always taken care to work with, rather than against, Pakistan’s deep state.There are some signs that Delhi is becoming increasingly aware that the Pakistani strain of militant Deobandi Islam poses a threat to peace and security in South Asia as a whole. After years of forbidding foreigners to study at Deoband, the Indian authorities recently relaxed the rule and granted visas to some Afghan Deobandi students. Given a choice between having Afghans educated in Pakistan or India, Delhi has decided that the quietist madarsa at Deoband is preferable to letting them be influenced by the politicised and sometimes militant Deobandi madarsas in Pakistan.Deobandi militancy might look like a force that cannot be controlled. But India’s experience suggests that the degree of militancy espoused by some Deobandis is a function of state policy.The writer is a British journalist and author of “Pakistan: Eye of the Storm”. (By arrangement with Dawn.)

Guwahati, April 19

The Army’s Veterans Cell located at 51 Sub Area here helped Sangita Das, the wife of a missing jawan in Assam, get pension benefits more than 15 years after her husband had been declared “deserter” and later as “missing” by the Army.Sangita, wife of Pradip Das, a jawan of 5 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion, had first moved the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in 2004, informing that her husband had been missing since July 2001 when he was supposed to report back to his unit in J-K after returning from leave. The Army unit where Das was posted later declared him “deserter” much to the agony of Sangita as it deprived her of pension benefits, thereby plunging her into abject poverty.Poverty compelled Sangita to work as domestic help and at a noodles factory in Guwahati at Rs3,000 a month. She with help of some relatives moved Guwahati bench of the AFT in 2004 seeking justice and pension. Though the AFT ruled in her favour in 2013, the Army still did not provide any pension benefit to her. She then brought her case before Veterans Cell, HQs 51 Sub-Area, here during an ex-servicemen rally held on December 9, 2015.“Veterans Cell swung into action and the 5 Rashtriya Rifles republished orders amending Pradip’s status from ‘deserter’ to ‘missing’. She finally got pension payment order on March 21, 2016. Sangita has been given a job by the HQs 51 Sub Area and her daughter Dinisha has been admitted to Army school in Narangi with free education,” said a defence spokesman. — TNS

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 18

The Army recruitment rally for candidates belonging to Ludhiana, Moga, Rupnagar and Mohali will be held at the Dholewal Military Complex here from April 25 to May 6.Recruitment director Col Kamal Kishore informed that physical test of candidates from Moga, Baghapurana, Nihal Singh Wala and Dharamkot tehsils would be held on April 25 while those from Moga and Badhni Kalan tehsils will appear for the test on April 26.“On April 27, the test will be held for candidates from Chamkaur Sahib, Nangal and Rupnagar tehsils while the same test for candidates from Sri Anandpur Sahib and Nurpur Bedi will be held on April 28. On April 29, candidates from Ludhiana South, West, East and Central tehsils will appear for the test and on April 30, candidates from Jagraon and Khanna Tehsils will take the test. Meanwhile, the test for candidates from Samrala, Payal and Raikot is scheduled for May 1 and for candidates from Dera Bassi, it will be held for May 2. Finally, on May 3, candidates from Kharar and Ajitgarh (Mohali) tehsils will take the physical test, Col Kishore added.Medical examination will be done next day. Documents of successful candidates will be taken on May 6. Meanwhile, the written test will be conducted on May 29. The candidates can download admit cards from website www.joinindianarmy.nic.in.

Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh and his wife Namita Suhag console late Major Amit Deswal’s wife and father at Palam Airport in New Delhi on Friday. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Jhajjar (Haryana), April 15

Mortal remains of Major Amit Deswal, who was killed on Wednesday in a gun battle with militants in Manipur, were consigned to flames on Friday with full military and state honours at his village in Haryana.

Deswal, who was from Surheti village of Jhajjar district, is survived by parents, wife and four-year-old son Arjun.

Major Deswal of the 21 Special Force of Rashtriya Rifles died fighting militants in Manipur’s Tamenglong district on April 13.

His body arrived on Friday at the technical area of Palam airport in Delhi, and after a wreath-laying ceremony, it was moved to the Major’s Surheti village.

It was a sad and proud last farewell for Major Deswal. Family members, relatives and hundreds of residents, including politicians, officials, social workers, said they were saddened by the death of young officer, but they were also proud of the braveheart’s “martyrdom”.

Full military honours and a gun salute were given to Major Deswal.

One of the military officers at the funeral said the braveheart breathed his last in the true traditions of a warrior.

Deswal was commissioned on June 10, 2006, into the Regiment of Artillery.

After basic service, Deswal recognised that his calling was somewhere more adventurous. He opted for the Special Group at first, but finally opted for the coveted Special Forces. — IANS

Karachi, April 12

An alleged Indian spy arrested in Pakistan has been charged with terrorism and sabotage in an FIR filed against him by the provincial Balochistan government, a media report said today.Kulbhushan Jadhav was reportedly arrested in Balochistan after he entered from Iran and was accused by Pakistan of planning “subversive activities” in the country.The Counter Terrorism Department, Quetta, has lodged a case against Indian “spy” Jadhav, the report said. The department lodged the case in provincial capital of Quetta, the report said without specifying on what date was the FIR registered.The alleged “RAW agent” was arrested last month from the Chaman area of Balochistan that lies near the Afghanistan border. The case against him has been registered on the complaint of the provincial home department on the directive of the federal government, the report said quoting police sources. — PTI