By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Martial law has not been an option worth considering for the top military commanders during the recent months of crises, it has been learnt.
An authoritative source told The News that even at the peak of the judicial crisis and the Lal Masjid issue, there was not a single corps commander who had suggested to President Musharraf to go for such an extreme step.
After the early June corps commanders meetings, the source revealed, Musharraf individually met all the corps commanders for their views on getting out of the post-March 9 crisis. The source said that there were only a few top military commanders who had recommended weighing the option of emergency, but there was no suggestion for imposition of martial law.
It was the same top military commanders meeting following which a press release was issued by the military spokesman announcing that the commanders stood behind Musharraf. It was also said that the military commanders lending their full support to him though such a statement was uncalled for as each and every member of the disciplined force is supposed to back the Army chief. Army chiefs don’t seek support from their senior commanders. It is mandatory. It is instinctive.
The source admitted that there was a realisation within the Army that public feelings against the institution had never been as strong as it were today. “In such a situation, the possibility of martial law is zero,” the source said, admitting, however, there was hardly anyone among the top commanders who could honestly tell the Army chief about their true feelings.
According to the source, the corps commanders meeting and the formation commander gatherings nowadays don’t discuss “thorny” political issues in a frank and honest manner unless allowed by the chair because of a wide gap of seniority between the Army chief and even the senior-most corps commanders.
“Would you believe that the present-day senior-most three-star generals were lieutenant colonels when Musharraf was a corps commander during the 90s,” the source said, quoting the examples of the Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) Lt Gen Ashfaq Kiani and Corps Commander, Rawalpindi, Lt Gen Tariq Majeed.
Although, Khalid Kidwai is the senior-most lieutenant general, he is out of the military’s command system and presently heading the Strategic Planning Division. Kidwai was to retire last year but Musharraf gave him one-year extension. He is the second exception after Lt Gen (retd) Hamid Javaid, Chief of Staff to the President, who were given extensions in service since October 12, 1999 military takeover. Musharraf himself is an exception as he is continuing as the Army chief since 1998.
Because of the seniority gap, it is said, the trend of raising dissenting voices within the four walls has ended. “Now the corps commanders are generally informed about the decision as recently happened in the case of the chief justice’s removal,” the source said, agreeing that for the sake of the institution of Army and the country the military commanders must be encouraged to speak their mind within the four walls.
The source recalled that the last time it was Tariq Waseem Ghazi, who, as lieutenant general (since retired), in a commanders meeting a few years back had expressed his dismay over the politicians being betted by Musharraf.
Sources even close to Musharraf confirm that a group of “opportunists”, including some political figures, are ill-advising him at the cost of national interest. There are some sycophants, it is said, who tell the president that his continuation in uniform is vital for the future of Pakistan. However, others believe that for the sake of one person, any extreme step could be disastrous for the country’s future.
These sources, however, admit that there are many in the government who realise that options like martial law are simply inconceivable at this stage as such an irrational step would lead Pakistan to a serious crisis.
Some believe that the recent speculation of martial law was an attempt to create a scare among those considered as “hurdle” by the powers that be. The ruling PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who has been advising the president to impose emergency, is quoted by newspaper reports to have told Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the MMA that the government was considering the options of emergency, martial law and an extension in the term of the present assemblies.
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