Pakistani Army commentary

[davidbfpo]

Our regular correspondent on Pakistan and the Pakistani Srmy, Hamid Hussain has contributed a lengthy (five page) commentary, which is on the attachment. One section has been copied to the ISI thread as it refers to the Director General.

[davidbfpo]

Three books reviewed:http://www.nbr.org/publications/asia...anuary2015.pdf

[omarali50]

General Asad Durrani is on a victory tour in the West these days and was apparently just interviewed by Aljazeera in Oxford (Mehdi Hasan). Pakistani author Ayesha Siddiqa had this to say of Facebook about the interview:

Don't know whether to weep or laugh when a former DG ISI says that the Taliban policy worked and killing of innocent people was inevitable collateral damage to get occupation forces out of Afghanistan. He also said that probably ISI knew about OBL which was a good policy. He would be exchanged for quid pro quo

Not broadcast yet. I wonder if there is any way to get a transcript or video? Anyone aware of this event? Anyone happened to be there?

This is a tweet from Mehdi Hasan about the interview:

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan · 52m 52 minutes ago
Just recorded 1 my craziest @AJHeadtoHead interviews ever in Oxford. With General Durrani, ex-head of Pakistani ISI & a Taliban supporter.

[omarali50]

Here is what I could gather from Twitter about General Durrani's wide ranging talk in the UK

https://storify.com/omarali50/genera...n-uk#publicize

[davidbfpo]

omarali50,

I participated in an AJE Head to Head last year, as a questioner. AJE use the Oxford Union's premises and after editing the interview should appear. You will have to check the programme's website:http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/headtohead/

It looks like the Durrani interview is the first in a new series of eight programmes.

[davidbfpo]

Ret'd General Durrani was interviewed for Head to Head in Doha, not the Oxford Union and it is likely to be broadcast in April. Meantime somehow parts have become public:http://www.politico.com/story/2015/0...ni-115063.html

There is a thread here on the OBL raid and the Pakistani investigation:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=18472

[Ray]

I am sure they all knew.

Hunting with the hounds and running with the hares.

Musharraf did a good job of it and so did the ISI,

Milked the US to keep afloat a failed Nation.

[davidbfpo]

Ret'd General Durrani's appearance @ The Oxford Union, for Al-Jazeera's 'Head to Head' series, has now been released for viewing. So judge for yourself what he said:http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/...130451504.html

[omarali50]

This is a must watch episode. Even dedicated fans of Anatol Lieven may be shocked into enlightenment...

[davidbfpo]

I'd not heard of this book until the occassional SWC contributor Hamid Hussain sent a review (on the attachment). He starts with:

Brian Cloughley’s A History of Pakistan Army is the fourth edition of a book originally written in 1999. Fourth edition adds many new chapters especially tenures of General Pervez Mussharraf and General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Author is one of few foreigners with long association with some senior Pakistani officers going back to early 1980s. This gives the author an advantage to draw on his personal associations.

Book is a comprehensive review of history of Pakistan army starting from 1947 when country gained independence. It documents journey of Pakistan army over six decades.

A History of Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections by Brian Cloughley, Fourth Edition. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 588

On Amazon UK no reviews:http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Paki...EZMQ91AWWD5JAQ

No reviews on Amazon.com either:A History of the Pakistan Army: Wars and Insurrections

[davidbfpo]

Hamid Hussain our occassional SWC contributor has a short paper on this aspect, which IMHO is a strange price to pay when the Pakistani state has "relations" with a good number of its jihadist enemies. See the attachment.

Someone asked about a little known aspect of current conflict and following was my response. On every trip to Pakistan, I visit local military graveyards and on every visit I see new and fresh graves of fallen soldiers.

[davidbfpo]

An update to the last post by Hamid Hussain our occassional SWC contributor:

Last circulation of the targeting of senior Pakistani army officers prompted an officer to remind me about late Colonel Sultan Amir Tarar, aka Colonel Imam who was abducted by Pakistani Taliban along with Squadron Leader (R) Khalid Khawaja. Both were later killed by Hakimullah Mahsud (ironically accusing them for working for CIA) who in turn was returned to his maker courtesy of a drone. Monsters usually eat their own creators as well as their own children.
Here is a profile of Colonel Sultan Amir by his friend and colleague and my two cents in red in main text. One small typo error. He was commissioned in 2nd Pathan; now 15 FF.

[omarali50]

Remembering the war of 1965

http://brownpundits.blogspot.com/201...ajor-amin.html

[davidbfpo]

Two contrasting articles on the Pakistani Army, one almost laudatory and the other asking questions.

Link thanks to WoTR:http://warontherocks.com/2015/10/why...ef-so-popular/

In the other corner, from a previously unknown website, with mainly American academics involved:http://muftah.org/where-things-stand.../#.VhQDZW4dzuk

[davidbfpo]

On the attachment is an exchange between Hamid Hussain and a ret'd Pakistani Army general, which illustrates how the army thinks. It is in the public domain.

[omarali50]

Sahibzada Yaqub Khan died on Jan 25th 2016 after a long and eventful life. More famous as a diplomat than as a general (he was more of an armchair general, did well with introducing academics into the army but never did anything notable in the field), he was a pillar of the Pakistani establishment. I combined obituaries/notes from Dr Hamid Hussain, Major Amin and a family friend into one blog post.

http://brownpundits.blogspot.com/201...aqub-khan.html

Excerpt:

..Of course, Sahibzada sahib's career as Bhutto's ambassador to several great powers, as Zia's foreign minister, then as the establishment's chosen foreign minister to keep Benazir in check, and then as Musharraf's envoy to justify his coup, all indicate that he was a solid and upstanding member of Pakistan's ruling elite and was comfortable with military rule, and with the foreign policy priorities of the Zia and Musharraf regimes (including the jihad in Afghanistan and its softer version in the Musharraf era). He was also highly educated and well read and had an impressive personality that a lot of people remember with awe. And of course, he got high praise from people like Nixon and Kissinger. One imagines that had he been born into the elite of a great power (instead of being born into the fading North Indian Muslim elite) he could have been an Edward Grey, though probably not a Curzon or Palmerston...

..
Yaqub’s critics point to three incidents pertaining to three different times of his life. First is when he was in Kashmir war in 1947-48. Yaqub was ordered to rescue a small picket surrounded by Indians. He was a thinking officer and kept calculating his own likely action and enemy’s possible reaction. In the meantime, Indians overran the picket. Second was when he refused to carry out military action against Bengalis when he was commander of Eastern Command. Yaqub was sacked from the army for his refusal. At that time, almost all officers regardless of their rank and social background denounced Yaqub. Later, with hindsight, some changed their mind and thought Yaqub did the right thing. Third criticism relates to his post retirement career. He served at important ambassadorial positions under Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and later served as Foreign Minister of Bhutto’s executioner General Muhammad Zia ul Haq without any qualms.

[davidbfpo]

Hamid Hussain our occassional SWC contributor has a short paper, which is on the attached PDF (3 pgs).

[davidbfpo]

Shashank Joshi's article on Nawaz Sharif's choice - due in November - via the Australian Lowy Institute:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...p-general.aspx

A Pakistani satirist, who Shashank cites, has a different viewpoint:

The once all-powerful Pakistan army has now retreated to only controlling the foreign policy, the ISI, all aspects of internal and external security, beating up errant journalists, extra judicial killings, policymaking in sensitive provinces like Balochistan, wheeling-dealings with all manner of ‘non-state actors’, and the nuke button. Some would say that Pakistan Army has even been rendered toothless — the power to unilaterally nuke India and getting Pakistan annihilated in subsequent Indian retaliation is hardly a symbol of power or a compensation for the inability to freely conduct coups.

[davidbfpo]

A book review by an Indian "lurker" on this controversial author; the review starts with:

In 2007, Ayesha Siddiqa touched a raw nerve by publishing Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. Then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf branded her a traitor, blocked the book launch, threatened to try her for treason and hounded her out of the country. Her crime was documenting the Pakistani military’s business involvement (“Milbus”) at the cost of the public economy. The 2017 edition of Military Inc. adds details from the post-Musharraf era and concludes that Milbus has become a permanent feature now. There is also widespread public and media acceptance of Milbus through the Pakistan military’s successful efforts in brushing up its image as the most trustworthy security guardian even under civilian rule. According to her, “In post 2007 Pakistan, military power is more intensely entrenched”.

(Ends with) By 2016, the Milbus in Pakistan “seemed unstoppable” since the army was perceived as the only credible national institution for guarding national security, fighting terrorism and intervening domestically to be a “counterweight to the corrupt, unaccountable and inefficient image of the political class”. This has boosted the army’s media image. This was also because “all political, religious and ethnic parties have over the years developed a dependency on the military”.

Link:https://thewire.in/123455/pakistan-m...yesha-siddiqa/

[davidbfpo]

A commentary by Hamid Hussain, a SWJ contributor. The full title being: Past is Prologue – New Ebb in Civil-Military Relations of Pakistan. It is too long for here, so is on the attachment.

One passage should alert the reader:

A look at the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) today may provide some more scary lessons. A dominant military dictated its wishes to civilians, with approval ratings of over ninety percent and admired and trusted by the general populace. Along comes a politician with only forty percent of the votes and a reasonable governance recipe. The TAF refused to adjust to this changed environment and a group of officers jumped the gun. The revenge was swift and brutal. The TAF was decapitated from the top with over forty percent of generals and admirals sacked and jailed, from the middle racks were eviscerated with the sacking of over 500 Colonels and dozens of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) booted out. The TAF is now a shadow of itself. Pakistan’s ‘Erdogan moment’ is not in near future; however nobody would have also predicted the fate of TAF just five years ago.