THE deliberations of the 83rd Formation Commanders Conference, held at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi with Army Chief General Asim Munir in the chair, as reported by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) send a clear signal to all that the leadership of the Pakistan Army is alive to the challenges facing Pakistan and is fully resolved to address them squarely. It discussed issues having a bearing on the security, defence and solidarity of the country and vowed to defeat nefarious designs of anti-Pakistan forces at all costs.
As a systematic campaign is underway by some vested interests to bring national institutions into negative light, the forum expressed its determination to defeat the digital terrorism that is harming the unity of the nation and is aimed at creating a wedge between the people of Pakistan and their armed forces. It is, indeed, a matter of great concern that unlike other responsible civilized countries where social media is exploited to accelerate the pace of socio-economic development of the society, here in Pakistan venomous campaigns are being launched against state institutions, distorting facts and spreading fake news. This free for all misuse of social media platforms must not be allowed and the Government should take steps on priority basis to strengthen its capacity to counter such propaganda and take the mischief-mongers to task. The formation commanders also reiterated call for bringing the planners, perpetrators, abettors, and facilitators of May 9 riots to justice for the “collective good of the country”, pointing out that stability in the country will remain hostage to the machinations of such elements if there is no swift and transparent dispensation of justice to the culprits and establishing the rule of law. This effectively means that there would be no leniency for those involved in violence on the black day of May 09 sans sincere apology and a firm commitment not to indulge in such behaviour in future. As cross-border terrorism continues to take human toll, the commanders expressed serious concern over terrorism being orchestrated using Afghan soil, noting that Pakistan’s adversaries were using Afghanistan to target security forces and innocent civilians inside Pakistan. Plans are also hatched and carried out using Afghan soil to target foreign nationals especially Chinese working on development projects. Pakistan has shared its findings on the Besham terrorist attack against Chinese nationals and it is to be seen what the Kabul authorities do in the presence of undeniable evidence of involvement of Afghanistan-based elements in the dastardly attacks. Apart from KP, attempts are being made by anti-Pakistan forces to destabilize Balochistan and with this in view the forum underlined the need for socio-economic development in Balochistan to counter externally propagated narratives of exclusion, exploited by foreign-sponsored proxies to lead Balochistan’s youth away from peace and progress. The Government is implementing a comprehensive strategy to tackle different mafias inflicting harm on the national economy. These mafias are highly influential and powerful and the Government surely needs all out cooperation and support of the entire nation, especially state institutions to defeat them effectively. It is, therefore, appreciable that the Pakistan Army has reiterated its resolve to continue its full support towards government initiatives in various domains for sustainable economic growth and curbing illegal activities, including smuggling, hoarding, electricity theft, implementation of one document regime, dignified repatriation of illegal foreigners, and safeguarding of the national database. In fact, this tangible support began during the caretaker government and continues to-date producing positive results in terms of overcoming shortages of essential commodities, price stability, smuggling of goods including gold and currency, exchange rate stability and overall security environment due to deportation of foreigners staying illegally in Pakistan. However, this support and cooperation needs to be strengthened as these challenges are still there, hampering efforts to reform the economy and put the country back on the right track. It is also satisfactory that the Army leadership was not oblivious to the fact that the force has to be modernized to remain relevant in the fast-changing regional and global environment. In this connection, the participants of the conference were also briefed on technological innovations to modernize the Army and optimize logistic support to field formations, in line with the fast-evolving operational environment. In fact, the deliberations of the conference reflect national aspirations and the people of Pakistan are solidly behind their armed forces in the discharge of their onerous responsibility of defending the country against internal as well as external threats.
