Where have the ‘I Love Pakistan Army’ stickers gone?

It’s pretty rare these days to see one of those ‘I Love Pakistan Army’, ‘We Are Proud Of Our Armed Forces’ and ‘Pakistan Army Zindabad’ stickers on the rear windows or bumpers of cars. Children are no longer interested in getting up early in the morning on Independence Day to watch the military’s parade on television. Women don’t get teary-eyed after hearing Malika-e-Tarannum Noorjehan singing “Aay puttar hattan de nahin wikde”. But these were common sights a decade back.

Times have changed and they call for a change in strategies as well. And the military’s top brass finally seems to be coming to terms with the reality that the nation is no longer ‘that’ proud of its army anymore.

Comprehending the fact that the dejected, inflation-hit masses are becoming increasingly perturbed over the major chunk of public money and foreign funds being gobbled up by the armed forces, the generals are becoming serious about revamping their tarnished image and win back public support.

Recently, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, while presiding over the 139th Core Commanders Conference, “requested” the government to divert US military aid towards helping the common man.

According to an official press release, the military high-ups also observed during the meetings that certain quarters, driven by their “perceptual biases”, were trying to run down the armed forces and thereby turning public opinion against the military.

They pointed out that attempts to create divisions between important institutions were harmful to national interest and stressed the need to put an end to this “unfortunate trend”.

The Pakistan Army hasn’t been having the best of times recently, starting from the US raid in Abbottabad last month in which al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.

The discovery that the world’s top terrorist was hiding in a Pakistani garrison city for years instantly aroused suspicions that the Pakistan Army was involved in foul play.

Later the PSN Mehran attack exposed the vulnerability of the armed forces and the 16-hour long siege raised disturbing questions over their capability to defend their bases, especially when the masses are forced to starve just to ensure that their jawans are prepared enough to take on any adversary.

The naval base incident also paved way for speculations that some elements within the armed forces might be abetting terrorists as the attack appeared to be an inside job.

Things took a turn for the worse when Frontier Corps men killed five foreigners – believed to be four Chechens and a Tajik –  in the Kharotabad area of Quetta on May 17. The Frontier Corps initially claimed that the five people including three women were would-be suicide bombers. However, witnesses claimed that they were unarmed and the bomb disposal squad also mentioned in its report that they were not carrying explosives. Later, some evidence surfaced suggesting that the Frontier Corps men at one of the check posts wanted to lay their hands on the dollars they assumed the foreigners were carrying. When the foreigners refused to give the Frontier Corps men what they wanted and moved on, they latter told their colleagues at the next check post that terrorists were headed their way, leading to five people’s tragic fate.

Then the military’s image was dealt another severe blow when on May 27, an Islamabad-based journalist, Saleem Shahzad, who disclosed in a report that al Qaeda has infiltrated the armed forces and is operating a cell at naval bases, was abducted, brutally tortured and found dead two days later near Mandi Bahauddin. This was all very similar to how the military’s premier spy agency is notorious for dealing with ‘dissidents’. The Humans Rights Watch also claimed on the back of Shahzad’s email that the journalist was receiving threats from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Finally, the murder of an unarmed youth by some trigger-happy Rangers personnel at a park in Karachi on June 8 again put the military in the firing line.

Even though what happened in Kharotabad and the park in Karachi were two incidents entirely different in nature, our vulturous electronic media somehow weaved them together as well as the other recent happenings involving the armed forces to present a villainous side of the men in uniform. But nevertheless, the media’s efforts have been instrumental in making the public realise that the military doesn’t have to be a ‘sacred cow’ and it deserves credit for that.

Also giving a hard time to the army is its own creation, Pakistan Muslim-League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif - perhaps the country’s most popular political leader as Benazir Bhutto is no longer with us. Sharif and his party are perhaps those “certain quarters” that the military high-ups were so concerned about.

Not only has the PML-N chief committed the ‘cardinal sin’ of demanding that the army’s budget should be presented before the parliament for the sake of transparency, but also criticised the military intelligence agencies’ constant meddling in domestic politics.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain, who is known for his distinct and amusing style of expressing his thoughts, hopped on the army-bashing bandwagon as well.

There is no doubt that he is an extraordinary man with many talents. But perhaps nobody was aware about his medical expertise. The MQM chief ‘diagnosed’ the armed forces and the ISI with cancer, gangrene, tuberculosis and last but not the least, AIDS. The ‘politician-cum-surgeon’ recommended that the parts affected by untreatable diseases such as cancer need to be surgically removed and the other parts should be quarantined until they recuperate.

He even brought up the question as to whether Pakistan’s nuclear assets are adequately safeguarded or not, following the ease with which terrorists managed to sneak into PNS Mehran. But then again, Hussain blows hot and cold and turns into the army’s biggest supporter as well.

The military leaders are rightly concerned about what’s going on… they should be. In fact, they also went as far as to hold held a meeting with the civilian leaders - President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani - at the Presidency to discuss the ongoing situation. The event was extraordinary in the sense that the civilian and military leaders usually gather at the Presidency only on ceremonial occasions.

However, the generals should bear in mind that is no deliberate attempt to malign the image of the army but it is a classic example of “you reap what you sow”. They have nobody else to blame but themselves for the profound dip in the army’s popularity.

The lavish lifestyles of the superiors of the armed forces, spending leisure time in dreamy golf courses and clubs while their children study abroad; the real estate business that the army has focused its energies on and the exorbitantly high-priced plots and bungalows in the Defence areas becoming a symbol of elite status… these are major obstacles for the men in uniform if they wish to become public idols once more.