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Pakistan’s Military and its Strategy BOTH India and Pakistan have common roots of civilisation, culture and history. Pakistan started off its history from a far better position getting West Punjab, which was known as the granary of undivided India. Pakistan’s per capita income had stayed higher than that of the Indians for nearly four decades after Independence. It is amazing how far these positives for Pakistan have come apart in just two generations. Certainly, the policies and strategies have played their role. Ever since Independence, India has kept relentlessly on the path of national integration and human development and is now regarded as an economic powerhouse. On the other hand, Pakistan’s army involved itself in the power structure of the country soon after its birth and since then, it has played a dominant role in the national power struggle mostly ruling the country directly under martial law or its variations or through proxy civil governments.
Army’s penetration into society had accelerated under President General Pervez Musharraf who gave army officers the key positions in public organisations while laying a claim that the army could run such organisations better than the incompetent and corrupt civilians. At various occasions, the army has insured its interest though constitutional safeguards. It has been able to acquire a significant role with the passage of National Security Act in 2004 that ensures the presence of chiefs of the army at the National Security Council. Thus, the interests of the army are catered to even when even out of power and political forces are not able to assert themselves fully on strategic and socio-political issues. Repeated and extended military regimes have further weakened the democratic institutions and have created a harsh divide between the army and non-army class in society. The author rightly opines that the military in Pakistan can be considered to be the largest political party. The author’s analysis of the ISI, a state within a state, is straightforward, precise yet thought provoking. She highlights ISI’s unmatched much-trumpeted reputation and its use by the military rulers to keep a check on political parties and raising furtive armies with a tendency to embark on covert wars in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Punjab. Ideology has been the reason for creation of Pakistan and religion has been the prime motivation for the army. The invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR and the creation of Bangladesh are mentioned as prime reasons for Islamation of the army. The army has seen itself as the defender not only of the physical frontiers but also of the ideological frontiers of the state, conceptualised on the foundations of religion so much so that the soldiers now consider themselves as "soldiers of Islam". Today, religion-based ideology of Pakistan stands in stark contrast to the idea of equality of human being that is enshrined in the Constitution of India. The author rightly states that the reputation of an army is gauged from its results in various wars. However, in the case of Pakistan, its army lost all its wars with India and in order to build up confidence in masses, it propagated the strategy of nuclear deterrence to counter the perceived threat perception from India. To win confidence of the masses, Pakistan’s strategic priority has been to achieve parity with India. Shalini Chawla’s description is fairly balanced and readers can form a continuous picture of the progress of the Pakistan Army from 1947 till 2008 and can determine the reasons of downfall of Pakistan. The book is a must read in the present context when Pakistan and its army have been entrusted with an all-important task to counter the Taliban. The author opines, Pakistan’s political problems, resulting in massive resentment from the people, will continue to grow in the absence of a democratic structure representing the masses, and this is definitely not in India’s interest.
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This
book is an attempt to study Pakistan’s military and its strategy to
pursue ideological and political goals. In the nine chapters, the
author Shalini Chawla, a research fellow at the Centre for Air Power
Studies, New Delhi, gives a detailed account of Pakistan’s army and
its role in suppressing democratic norms and dissent and thus assuming
significant role in formulation of national policies, foreign policy
in relation to India being prime. The Pakistan army has focused on
conventional military build-up, arranging nuclear arsenal, organising
covert wars by highlighting perceived security threat and above all
exercising its right over civil bureaucracy.