Campaign to defame Pak-Army
FOR some time now, a series of posts against Army Chief General Asim Munir have been going on very frequently on social media, there have been protests against him in London as well. Protesters have alleged that the army chief is supporting the ruling party while opposing Tehreek-e-Insaf. During the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf demonstration in London, various posters with pictures of the army chief were also revealed, on which it was written that he was made the army chief three days after the completion of his tenure. On the other hand, Shahbaz Sharif has accused that former Prime Minister and Chairman PTI Imran Khan is breaking the constitution by dragging the institutions into his dirty politics. Therefore, legal action should be taken against him. A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s House also said that the Prime Minister has directed the Home Minister to “deal with iron hands with the dirty campaigners. Strict action should be taken against those who instigate chaos, riots and sedition.”
This is a very sad situation as the Pakistan Army is currently going through various challenges. Army is facing fifth generation warfare. In such a situation, such a campaign against the army by PTI definitely falls under the category of blackmailing. Efforts are being made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to provoke Army Chief General Asim Munir by naming him and pressurizing him to take a decision that will benefit the party but the army has also taken a firm decision that they will not enter in politics. The army has not become completely ‘apolitical’, but apparently the army is not doing anything. Some within the army may be political- minded but the GHQ is not directly involved in any issue nowadays.
The government is running independently and the General Headquarter is no longer directly involved as it used to be in the past. The cases that are being made against Imran Khan are definitely from the PMLN government and they are settling their scores, but in response, Tehreek-e-Insaf is putting all its debris on the army. There is no end to what Tehreek-e-Insaf is doing at this time. Their campaign against former Army Chief General (Retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa is already underway and now the campaign against Army Chief General Asim Munir has also started. Although PTI spokespersons have expressed indifference to this, but it is also a fact that those who staged these demonstrations in London are well-known PTI sympathizers.
Of course, this is a very wrong trend. In Pakistan at this time, no personality has remained uncontroversial and now institutions are also being made controversial which will cause damage to PTI itself. Imran Khan openly says that the establishment should get rid of the government, help him in the elections and bring him back to power. He is making these demands openly but no response is coming from the other side. He has not been contacted by the army yet. In this anger, these people have come down on the blackmailing of the Army and the social media team of the party has started a very dirty campaign against the institutions. Imran Khan and his party were waiting for the results from the army in his favour, so the results have definitely started coming but not positive.
Bad news for the PTI is that a few marathon meetings of the country’s civilian and military high command have expressed a very unfavourable view of the PTI campaign. The party has been described as “a group of miscreants trained by banned organizations rather than a political party” and vowed to take strict against it. What can be taken to mean?? surely those who understand must have understood it. The first meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was held on March 20, in which ministers and representatives of the ruling coalition parties participated, which lasted about five hours. In this meeting, there was a lively discussion on the prevention of the defamation campaign of the army.
Immediately after this, the second meeting lasted an hour in which Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir and Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence Lt General Nadeem Anjum also participated. According to an official statement issued after the meetings, the two meetings agreed to take strict action against those who are involved in violent protests and vandalism of public and private property. The meeting also decided to take strict action against those involved in defaming the state institutions including the armed forces and the judiciary through a “smear campaign”. Attacks on police and rangers obeying court orders were strongly condemned and termed as hostility against the state. All evidence and proofs are available, under which strict action will be taken against those involved in the unrest,” the statement added.
From all these factors, it is very clear that Imran Khan’s pressure on the army has become a noose for him. Astute readers must have realized that if PTI had only stood against PDM, the army would never have blocked their way because governments do not fall with such protests. Campaigns against the army alone are all the rage and for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the army has been defamed so openly by a political party. The kind of politics that Imran Khan has introduced in Pakistan, not affordable here in any case. The politics of abuse and bullets always leads to loss. Stubbornness always destroys oneself or others and that is what Imran Khan is doing right now. His behaviour suggests that he wants power at all costs.
In his view, only he has the right to rule the country and no one else is eligible. From recent decisions within the army, it is not difficult to guess that their patience has run out. For Imran Khan the situation may not be the same as it is now, after a few days. The talk of killings is PTI’s own invention, but there is authentication in the talks of declaring the party illegal. One should not even think that the government can face rebellion by doing this because the rebellion of the power-mads is always limited. We pray that the Almighty will have mercy on the conditions of our country and put the love of soil instead of power in the hearts of our ruling class. Pakistan Zindabad
