Inter-Services Public Relations director general Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor on Monday rebutted the impression that the Armed Forces were playing any covert role in the country’s politics.
He was speaking after a journalist brought up the frequent use of an Urdu phrase khalai makhlooq, meaning alien powers, in PML-N quaid Nawaz Sharif’s public rallies to refer to the powerful security establishment’s alleged role in politics. While the ISPR DG reserved comment on the use of the phrase, he broached the issue of upcoming general elections and said that the security forces should not be dragged into the matter. He said the army was satisfied that all allegation leveled against it in this regard had been proven wrong with time.
He said it was the responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and if it was in a position to hold the election tomorrow, it could do so. He added that if the army was requisitioned for any election-related task, that would be an entirely different matter. He said it tried to fulfill whatever tasks it was assigned to the best of its capabilities.
To a journalist’s comment that the army seemed to be ‘exercising restraint’ under Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Maj Gen Ghafoor said the institution would continue to do so as long as it felt that the criticism was not harming the country.
A major portion of the talk was devoted to the prevailing environment in the formerly Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the ongoing Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM).
Hailing the merger of these regions into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a historic achievement, he said the credit for the task went to both the civilian and military leadership. Regarding opposition to the merger, Ghafoor said there wasn’t a 100 percent consensus on the matter but those opposing it needed to understand that FATA was now a part of KP, and everyone needed to work together for development in the region.
Denying the impression that the security forces were using force against the PTM, he recalled that he had met the movement leaders during the Islamabad sit-in and acknowledged that their demands were practical and assured them of action on them. He said that after the meeting he received a text message by Mohsin Dawar, a central leader of the movement, thanking him for the facilitation. Despite receiving assurances, he said, the PTM started another round of protests a few days later. The ISPR DG then objected to an apparent change of last name by the PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen as well as quick emergence of about 5,000 Afghanistan-based social media accounts associating themselves with the movement. He even questioned the popularity of the cap worn by Pashteen and articles published on the movement in the foreign press, asking rhetorically, “How did a cap made abroad started being imported into Pakistan? How did articles start appearing in newspapers and how did some foreign media start telecasting the protests live on Facebook and Twitter?”
He said that since the country’s enemies were praising the PTM, the latter needed to do some introspection to see if its activities were in favour of the country or not.
The ISPR DG said the forces had strict instructions from the army chief against use of force on PTM gatherings. Referring to reports that PTM leaders were detained before their gathering in Lahore, he said the army chief had taken quick notice and called the authorities in the city asking them to back down and desist from making arrests.
“They are Pakistanis too. If they have some grievances, till such time [that] they are genuine and within the confines of the Constitution, we are the state, and we have to deal with them,” he quoted Gen Bajwa as saying.
Regarding Sunday’s incident in South Waziristan Agency, the ISPR DG said the scuffle between PTM and the aman committee had started over the former’s use of anti-army and anti-state slogans. He said that later the security forces came to the rescue of the injured, who were taken to hospitals on army helicopters.
Missing persons
Regarding the issue of missing persons, he said numbers had decreased from 7,000 to 3,000, adding, however, that war could not be a fair game and that sacrifices were needed to be made on such occasions by the people on a national and military level as well as by residents of the affected areas.
He said, “everybody who is not at home is not picked up by the forces, and everybody who is picked up is not Pashtun. Every terrorist is not Pashtun, and not every Pashtun is a terrorist.”
Media freedom
Dismissing the impression that army was censoring the press, he said anyone could come forward and state on record if they had received any dictation from the army. “I have only said [to media owners] that Pakistan needs to come together and Pakistan needs to further its successes and strengths: please do what you can to this end.”
Regarding social media, he said that there had been a sharp rise in the number of troll accounts maligning the armed forces, adding that the latter had full capability to track such accounts.
Other issues discussed in the briefing were Pak-India ties, Pak-Afghan border fencing, and the recently published co-authored book by former chiefs of ISI and RAW.
Published in Daily Times, June 5th 2018.
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