SILVER LINING IN THE APPOINTMENT OF JOINT CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF

Pakistan is used as an example of how a politically neutral institution of the Army can progressively become involved in politics because of defects in political institutions and other causes, leading to the military's major involvement in the decision-making process.

Even if we agree with it or not, Army has always been playing a major role in Pakistan’s politics with great delight. They have always denied the involvement; ISPR (Inter- Services Public Relations) has stated that army has “nothing to do with politics”, but in the past few years their role has become more apparent as many politicians are arising with their stories of army’s involvement. This has led to many changes in the government, some of which deteriorated the condition of Pakistan and some helping it. Many of us view the involvement of army differently, but it is needless to say that they have acted as a catalyst in ending many governments, imposed marshal laws and dictated the country.

However, from past decade their focus has shifted to managing politicians and trying to control them through constitutional adjustments for protecting its vision of “national interest”. These days the relationship between army and the public is at its all-time worst due to the narrative set by Pakistan Tahreek e Insaaf’s (PTI) chairman “Imran Khan”.  Their role behind many foreign conspiracies have emerged, which also aided in ending PTI’s tenure. Imran khan’s consistent accusation against army for taking the side of opposition and staying neutral, has led to many citizens deviating their support from army to PTI’s government. At the moment, due to the unanticipated events, Imran khan is enjoying a good support from the public.

General Syed Asim Munir (left)
General Sahir Shamshad Mirza (right)

Moreover, recently Pakistan’s Ex-army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa confessed about Army’s involvement in politics and have pledged to not do the same in the future. However, at this point for many this statement is not enough to believe that Army can separate themselves from politics. At the moment, due to greed and power of some individuals Army has completely lost the trust of people in them.  However, if we look at the silver lining currently General Syed Asim Munir has been appointed as the chief of army and General Sahir Shamshad Mirza has been appointed as joint chief of army. This development can prove out to be a changing point in Pakistan’s politics.

However, there are many challenges for the new leadership that they need to address in order to regain public confidence. They must make sure that they stick by the promises ex-army chief General Bajwa made. They must control the current deteriorating situation of the country by being observant yet staying unbiased. To overcome these challenges, they firstly need to release the workers that were sent to prison for criticizing army. The FIRs and cases against them should be removed and such activities should not be repeated in the future. Likewise, they should try to not get involved in politics as this would be a major step in getting public’s trust. Moreover, action against people who were involved in these activities should be taken.

For the military to stay out of politics and for the civilian government to uphold the integrity of the armed forces, the nation's political leaders must align themselves with the Army's nationalistic position and resist caving into their internal power struggles. However, such a transformation does not appear to occur anytime soon due to the inter-party-political dynamics, but one can only hope to see the changes in the government due to the major appointments.