The cancellation of the new GHQ building seems to mark a desire by the military to be a part of the national whole rather than to be a colossus lording over downtrodden people. By halting the construction of this lavish new GHQ, a Rs. 60 billion project having built area of 99 acres on prime real estate in Islamabad, the COAS has indicated that the Pakistan Army is ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with people. The project, inaugurated in 2004 by former president Pervez Musharraf, has been stopped in view of the economic crunch in the country. The major political parties, including the PPP and PML-N had already spoken out against this new military headquarters, which was to form a part of the sprawling new Defence Complex stretched over thousands of acres of prime Islamabad land. This is a signal of the changed order of relations between the country's military and civilian setups. In the recent past, General Kayani has gone out of his way to lay down clearly that the army was ready to follow government orders, no matter what the issue. This, though, is the clearest manifestation of divergence from the past when the army had dictated terms to governments and moved to oust them as and when it chose. For the people of Pakistan, an end to this unfortunate tradition is even better news than the halt in construction of the Rs. 60 billion behemoth. The symbolism is also important. The GHQ site represented to many position of the military as an institution that holds it own interests dearer to those of citizens it is duty bound to serve. -MUHAMMAD ARSHAD NADEEM, Islamabad, via e-mail, October 30.