Traitor of the bastion

Major (retired) Kamran Shafi is completely ignorant of the fact that our Army is the
bastion of this country’s strength, notwithstanding the role some of its generals have
played in recent past. And they, mind you, did so at the behest of USA, imposing
Martial Laws, derailing the political system that caused us immense harm. No sane
person can justify the acts of Late General Zia-ul-Haq, Pervez Musharraf or their
predecessors, Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan. These are had patches of our political
history but Army under the leadership of General Kiyani is operating as it should
under the civil government and has accomplished the very arduous jobs of fighting
against the militants in Swat, Dir, Bajaur and Waziristan. As a former military
officer, Mr Shafi should know that these were not easy tasks when US and its
NATO allies completely failed in their mission.
We should be patriotic enough to appreciate rather than target the Army in
vilification campaigns. For some strange reason, Mr Shafi’s grudge against the army
is so overwhelming that he compares our Army generals and the top brass with
‘Nabobs’ (Nawabs for those who use the word in Urdu), which is as ridiculous as it is
preposterous. With men like Mr Shafi, who needs enemies. How pathologically
deranged is the observation that “Our problem is an arrogant, sinister and secretive
security establishment that looms darkly over the country’s future”. He seems very
fond of the Indian system of Army being controlled by the civil, though. -BRIG (Rtd)
SYED RAZA ALI, Lahore, February 4.