Role of Army Chief: Security of borders or political speech?
- Controversial statement of General Asim Munir and the two-nation theory
- Is Pakistani democracy a sham?
Should the army chief speak on politics? Justice Katju raised serious questions on the statements of the Pak Army Chief, debate on democracy and the role of the army.
Should army chiefs speak on politics?
By Justice Markandey Katju
The job of an army chief and other officers and soldiers of an army is (1) to protect the country against aggression by a foreign invader, (2) to aid the civilian authorities in the event of internal disturbance.
It is none of their business, and highly improper of them, to talk on political issues. No army chief or military officer in the world does that, whether it is in the US Army, the British Army, the Chinese Army, the Indian Army, or any other army. In fact even the names of the army chiefs in these countries is usually unknown to the general public.
But Pakistan has a strange army, which was proved by what happened last Wednesday in the Overseas Pakistanis Convention
The army chief spoke at length on political issues before an audience which included the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif
He ranted about the two nation theory, saying that Muslims are different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life.
He also said that Kashmir was the jugular vein of Pakistan
Gen Munir also spoke against the Baloch insurgents
I have already written an article on this speech, calling Gen Munir 'a running dog' ( servile lackey ) of the developed countries
Now I am posing another question. Was it proper for Gen Munir to talk publicly on these issues ?
As stated above, the job of an army chief is to safeguard the borders of the country, and help the civil authorities in maintaining law and order. It is not his job to talk politics publicly or decide policy. When US Gen MacArthur wanted to continue the Korean War he was sacked by President Truman, who wanted a cease fire.
The issues on which Gen Munir spoke were for the Prime Minister of Pakistan to speak on and deal with. But the PM Shahbaz Sharif was sitting silently in the audience, like a schoolboy, hearing the army chief, who spoke like a teacher lecturing his students, when it should have been the other way around.
Though Pakistan claims to be a democracy, everyone knows that its real ruler is the army, overtly or covertly. In this connection I am reminded of a story from the historian Plutarch.
When Roman General Pompey the Great went to Sicily the people there objected to his jurisdiction on the ground that it was against an ancient law of Rome. To which Pompey replied " Don't quote the laws to us, we carry swords ".
So also, the Pakistan Army has told the civil authorities, the Ministers, legislators, judges, civil servants and police, as well as lawyers, mediapersons, academicians, etc that power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and the Pakistan Army has the gun. Failure to remember that can have dire consequences for those who defy the writ of the army.
The Pakistan army is not an army but a vampire
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
