DESPITE sustained propaganda by some vested interests to drag the Pakistan Army into political affairs and debates, the institution firmly remains ‘apolitical’ and has no intention of becoming party to political controversies. In this regard, a strong message was conveyed by Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) during his exhaustive news briefing on Tuesday that covered several important topics and issues of interest to the people. Responding to a question, he made it clear that the army had no tilt towards any political side as it was a national army and did not support the ideology or thoughts of any particular political party, urging political parties to support the resolve of the institution to remain apolitical. The spokesperson also dwelt at length on the prevailing security environment, situation on eastern and western borders, ongoing intelligence-based operations to weed out terrorists and provision of manpower for elections in Punjab.
The resolve of the Pakistan Army to remain firmly apolitical assumes greater significance in the backdrop of the latest developments in the country where some forces continue to spread false propaganda against the institution and its leadership, especially through social media without realizing the fact that their negative tactics provide opportunity to the enemies of Pakistan to magnify anti-Army propaganda to further their own regional and global objectives. Knowing fully well that they cannot succeed in their nefarious designs against Pakistan as long as its defence forces and the premier intelligence agency ISI are supported wholeheartedly by people, they are targeting them on different fronts and try to sow seeds of discord between national institutions and people of Pakistan. Ironically, politicians have all along been demanding that the Pakistan Army should remain neutral and when an institutional decision has been taken to do so, attempts are being made by some political circles to provoke the institution. It is now quite clear even to a layman that those asking the Army to remain apolitical, in fact, want it to adopt a posture that suits their political agenda. It was with this in view that they have launched a consistent propaganda campaign not just against the former leadership of the institution but also against the present leadership despite the fact that Army Chief General Asim Munir has neither issued any political statement nor allowed his institution to interfere in political affairs. Maj. Gen. Sharif rightly pointed out that relations between the institution and sitting government were always apolitical but of constitutional nature, which should not be given a political colour, adding they respect all the political parties but do not have any leaning towards any political party. His statement is fully vindicated by what people of Pakistan witnessed ever since the new Army Chief assumed power. The issue of provision of troops in aid of the civil government is also governed by the relevant constitutional provisions and it has to be kept in view by all that decisions about such cooperation are always made keeping ground realities in view. The Defence Ministry has already provided an input to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the issue of provision of manpower for elections in Punjab which is based on facts and ground realities. And as for ground realities, the situation became crystal clear when the Army spokesperson disclosed that around 436 incidents of terrorism were reported this year and the security forces conducted 8,269 intelligence-based operations during which around 1,535 terrorists were either killed or arrested. The security forces were conducting over 70 operations on a daily basis to eliminate terrorism and the gravity of the situation can be gauged by the fact that 137 officers and jawans of the army were also martyred in these operations. As for the security situation on the western border, it was reassuring to hear from Major-General Sharif that the work on fence-building was continuing in a bid to address the chronic problems of illegal border crossings and rampant smuggling of goods and narcotics. Around 3,141-kilometre border had been fenced along the frontiers with Afghanistan and Iran to prevent infiltration of terrorists. About 98 percent of border with Afghanistan and 85 percent with Iran had been fenced, while 85 percent of forts along the Afghanistan frontier and 33 percent with Iran had been built. Referring to the statement made by COAS General Asim Munir during his recent visit to the LoC, the spokesperson reiterated that Kashmir remains an officially recognized dispute and India cannot hoodwink international public opinion through its illegal and immoral tactics. In a nutshell, the news briefing of Major-General Sharif conveyed a sincere desire of the institution not to interfere in politics and focus instead on professional pursuits which augurs well for the country.
