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The last refuge

Discipline is what differentiates the Armed Forces from a mob, the strict and constant application of it ensures that the difference remains. Before an officer reaches field officer status i.e. a Major (or Squadron Leader equivalent in the Air Force and Lieutenant Commander in the Navy) he must pass the “Captain to Major Examination”, among the subjects he must qualify in is “Military Law”. Not only is the application of Military Law important in the discharge of his duties, the individual officer gets to understand the full implications of violation thereof. One of Germany’s outstanding commanders in World War II, Lt Gen Erich Von Marcks, obtained 8 out of a possible 200 in “Military Law” before the war in attempting to pass the requisite examination to Major’s rank. His comment “Thank God for wars!” serves to illustrate the limitations of good soldiers in tackling this important subject. If the world war had not (fortuitously for him) come around, the future three star general would have remained a captain.

Recently a major general has been prematurely compulsorily retired by the COAS Gen Abdul Waheed on grounds of moral turpitude. Caught literally with his pants down, the general officer decided that discretion was the better part of valour and chose to go quietly. Professional competence aside, the man’s succumbing to worldly pleasures in this manner is a double tragedy both for him and the Army that invested 30 years in him. Not the first one to become fallible in this manner in this world, he will certainly not be the last, his bad luck was in getting caught. At the other end of the scale, a couple of soldiers were convicted in Karachi by court martial on charges of abducting and molesting a girl. Both incidents involved swift applications of military justice to serve as an example for discipline. These incidents tend to show that the “Manual of Pakistan Military Law” (MPML) is not to be taken lightly, being applicable without fear or favour from soldier up to general’s rank. It all underscores the determination of the military hierarchy to keep the Forces within the ambit of strict discipline. That the present COAS, with less than six months to go till his own retirement, intends to see that the concept of discipline remains supreme is praiseworthy, given that some of his predecessors, though honourable men, had chosen to ignore rank rascality in not only tolerating some undeserving individuals but even promoting them, a la the officer caught blatantly telling lies in the Tando Bhalwal incident. If a certain “gentleman” makes it to COAS, given that after planting false rumours about his colleagues he will do nothing more than plant real trees in Gujranwala (which should do wonders for the Environment), the Tando Bhalwal character is a potential three star general. The individual’s negative attributes are just what those who themselves go up the ladder through intrigues look for in subordinates.

The enforcement of military discipline is very important during times of Martial Law (ML) or in duties in “Aid of Civil Power” when less than 10% of the professional army is involved in the enforcing and not more than 1% of that (i.e. 0.01% of the whole Army) comes into contact with civilians in any capacity. Of this lot of about 6,000-7,000 individuals from soldiers to general’s rank, less than 100-150 have the tendency of misusing their authority for personal gain but unfortunately the Army as a whole invariably gets a bad name, becoming vulnerable because of their failure in being more strict in bringing in the corrupt and greedy to justice. The same story is repeated in “Procurement” and in “Test and Trials” during peacetime where only a very small coterie of greedy and corrupt people within the Department may benefit individually but the whole Army gets labelled with the blame. Over a period of last 25 years less than 1000 individuals may have benefited by misusing their authority whereas millions of servicemen, serving and retired, face public approbation. This tarnishing of the Army’s reputation spoils the clean wholesome image which is the touchstone of the Army’s reputation. This erosion can only be contained if the military hierarchy resolves not to accept chicanery of any kind within its ranks and the punishment ratio is enhanced. The compulsory retirement of a major general at short notice for breaking the law of the land is a significant step as it will serve as a salutary example for others not to emulate. What is of concern is that an attempt was made first to give it the colour of (1) dissent on grounds of patriotism with an afterthought of (2) persecution because of ethnicity. Both innuendoes were totally false, deserving contempt.

There is always a small group of ex-servicemen in most countries (Pakistan is no exception) that takes for granted that they are the inheritors of the military Earth in their respective domain, that wining and womanizing is the soldiers’ way, that bluster and boast under the influence of alcohol should be taken to be courage. In fact they are a very small minority of extremely frustrated individuals who rely on alcohol to dull their envy of others, they are certainly not representative of the Army but sometimes one or two get into senior positions. The sound of a bullet fired in anger is a great equalizer with the more silent souls who do not wear their “patriotism” on their sleeves. Being influential by virtue of their military lineage, this despicable lot derides honest, professional officers on the straight and narrow who make up “the great silent majority” that makes this Army one of the finest institutions in the world. In utter contrast to what they preach, for the most part this inner circle is involved in everything from influence-peddling, kickbacks, graft and corruption, smuggling, blackmail, etc. Whenever caught red-handed their usual fall-back position is the refuge of “patriotism”. They do not hesitate in spreading rumours to give ethnic colour, a disease that the Armed Forces have managed to avoid uptil now, at least since 1971. The main character and twisted soul behind this hole-in-the-wall gang is a prolific letter writer, a known drunk and womanizer, who is such a snivelling coward that he does not have the courage to give his own name to either the articles he writes (under pseudonym) or the “Letters to the Editors” that he authors under different names chosen from a stable of fellow frustrated former colleagues. If somebody would care to read all the anti-Army letters published over the last 10 years, the language and theme used in defaming others in the media are too obvious to ignore. The case of the unfortunate major general caught “in libido” was in character with the general behaviour of this group that has delusions of being a so-called “Young Turk” faction. The refuge on the plane of patriotism is an all-too familiar laughable defence, quite apparent to the whole Army that knows the actual truth. The tragedy is that given such a twist, distortion of facts do tend to become coloured as the “truth”. The general in question was certainly a professional and a nationalist, for the sake of the Army he professed to serve honestly he should stand up like a man and take his punishment without bringing the Army’s name into disrepute. In the months before he retires, Gen Waheed can have the satisfaction of knowing that to a large extent he has de-politicised the Army, removed a number of undeserving, corrupt individuals and stabilised the promotion process to generally one of merit. The essence of efficiency and excellence in any entity, more so in the Armed Forces, is based on selection on merit and nothing but merit. Having said that, it is also true that some deserving individuals may have been desperately unlucky to have been passed over for one reason or the other, but in balance nobody undeserving has been promoted in their place. Given this history of fairplay, one does remain a little nonplussed as to why the COAS tends to ignore the public perception that some of his subordinates still in uniform were active accessories or collaborators in the political manipulation that is the raison d’etre of our present political crisis. This feeling is force-multiplied in the public perception given the power the COAS wields in Pakistan and, therefore, he becomes vulnerable to distortion of facts.

The military hierarchy cannot remain oblivious to individuals who have misused the mandate of office to destroy the careers and reputation of their colleagues by systematic defamation, ostensibly in the name of a higher duty to the nation but really for their own selfish ambitions. If this was confined to one aberration, one would even be forgiving but when dastardly methods are used repeatedly for personal gain, this must be taken note of. Consider coolly the patriotism of a man who aspires to high rank if he has to look to lobby a foreign power for support? To the extent of manipulating in the posting of a person over whom he holds a Sword of Damocles as blackmail into a key diplomatic position? This happens to be the truth and whether one likes it or not the country’s destiny is at stake when we appoint our senior officers to key posts, we cannot afford to look the other way or bury our heads in the sand like ostriches and hope for the best. The Army cannot be reduced to having their senior appointments confirmed like that of SHOs of Police to a lucrative Thana. The Navy is well on the way to becoming a gone case while the Air Force is under some subtle pressure, the Army remains for the time being the last bastion of integrity and hope for the nation. If Lieutenant Generals and Major Generals could be sent home for various misdemeanours much less potent in the national context, what is the divine power that protects such latter-day Rommels from retribution as per the dictates of uniform and a code of conduct that separates gentlemen from outright rascals?

Samuel Johnson stated that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”. Unfortunately in Pakistan it seems to have become the only sanctuary for scoundrels who sacrifice the interests of their country at the altar of greed and ambition. In retrospect, the major general who was compulsorily retired can be called most fortunate as instead of being stoned to death under Islamic Laws for being involved in an affair of the heart with a consenting adult he can at least go home satisfied with the knowledge that his was an individual act with another man’s wife, that he was certainly far removed from the type of rape, pillage and loot that every institution worth mentioning in this country is presently being subjected to in the name of the Constitution.

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