New Delhi
27 May 2008
Pakistan Army recognises there can be no military solution of the problems with
India, according to Shuja Nawaz, author of "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its army, and the
wars within".
He feels a similar sentiment tends to pervade the public discourse in Pakistan insofar as
the troubles on its western frontier are concerned. There is a realisation that the
resolution of tensions in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) would require
political and economic initiatives more than employing of military means.
Mr Nawaz, whose book suggests the 1999 Kargil military operation was planned years
in advance, also feels Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has done his bit for peace
by proposing resolution of outstanding issues between the two countries.
"Musharraf has done [the sub-continent] a favour by opening up the possibility of
solution or a path towards solution," he said in an interaction with scholars and
journalists here on Tuesday.
Mr Nawaz, whose brother Asif Nawaz was the chief of Pakistan Army from 1991 till his
death in 1993, says Pakistan may still view India as a threat but the possibility of a
conventional conflict breaking out between the two nuclear-armed South Asian
neighbours is unlikely.
There is, though, a lingering suspicion in Pakistan that as India becomes a major power,
she will overtly influence the course of events and aim for regional hegemony, he
asserts.
Mr Nawaz maintains the current chief of Pakistan Army, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, "is
not one for grandstanding" and he would rather consult the Government of Pakistan than
tell it what to do in a situation.
He says Gen Kayani has pulled Army officers from civilian institutions but what he "has
not done yet" is to attend to the commercialisation of Pakistan Army or to reduce its
commercial interests.
Gen Kayani has made his priorities clear but he cautions Pakistan Army chiefs have a
way of "getting drawn in" and therefore, the statements emanating from the General
Headquarters in Rawalpindi should be "weighed against history".
On Pakistan Army itself, Mr Nawaz's book cites demographic data of recruitment and
retirement, compiled between 1970 and 2006, to suggest more army officers are being
recruited from Karachi or from larger cities as opposed to the countryside, in order to
lend Pakistan Army a representative character.
"Pakistan Army is truly becoming representative of the population on a provincial basis,"
he points out.
Mr Nawaz, whose book is based on 30 years of research and analysis of the nature and
role of the Pakistan army in Pakistan's polity, is working with RAND in the United States
and other think tanks on projects dealing with Pakistan and West Asia. He was
associated with Pakistan Television and The New York Times.
According to the publisher Oxford University Press, the book relies on interviews with
key military and political figures in Pakistan and the United States to shed light not only
on the Pakistan Army and its US connections but also to lay bare key facts about
Pakistan's numerous wars with India and the Kargil conflict of 1999.
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