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NEIGHBOURS:
PAKISTAN
'Journey
Through the Alley of Shame'
Being
the nearest thing to an official version of the 1971 debacle, the HRC
report, wrote The Nation, has proved "an unsettling experience"
for Pakistan. "Going through these excerpts, and that too on the
day marking the 53rd anniversary of independence, was a traumatic journey
through the alley of shame one would not wish for one's enemy," wrote
Lahore-based civil-rights activist I.A. Rehman. The report's findings,
declared Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairman Afrasiab Khattak,
"contains material sufficient to bring unmitigated shame and anguish
to the people". The full report, he demanded, echoing even those
who have questioned the motives behind publication, must now be made public.
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"One
day India will publish a report on Kargil"-Kulsoom
Nawaz- wife of Nawaz Sharif |
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"There's
no reason to believe the published report is fake"- Rao
Farman Ali- Exonerated General |
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"Liberals
in Pakistan leaked the report to show up Musharraf" -Kuldip
Nayar- Rajya Sabha Member |
At one level,
the discussion on the report has centred on the actual happenings in 1971.
Lt-General A.A.K. Niazi, identified as one of the villains of the piece
by the HRC, has offered himself up for court martial, declaring that the
debacle in the east arose from the failure of the army to hold its ground
in the west. Major-General Rahim Khan, indicted for his "cowardice",
said the HRC document was "engineered by Bhutto". Arguing in
the same vein, another indicted veteran, Major-General Ghulam Omer, said
the HRC report was prepared by a bunch of "non-technical people".
These protestations
of innocence haven't gone down too well. The larger question being asked
in Pakistan about the report is: What has the army learnt from 1971? The
answers haven't been too flattering for Musharraf's military regime. In
a hard-hitting indictment of his colleagues, Air Marshal Nur Khan, former
air force chief, said, "There were disasters after disasters and
the army always pretended nothing had happened. They were protecting lies.
They claim to be fighting for Islam but the rank and file believes the
leadership has been dishonest. This is simply criminal." Referring
to the HRC's observation that the army suffered a "moral collapse",
he said, "You cannot live with a lie for ever. You have to clean
the pus in its body and only then will the army become a moral force.
Otherwise you will remain a mercenary army."
In more concrete terms, Nur Khan called for a high-powered commission
comprising army officers and civilians with impeccable credentials to
probe Pakistan's "national disasters". These included the 1965
war fiasco, the 1971 surrender, the Ojhri camp disaster and the Kargil
misadventure. This suggestion was endorsed by former army chief General
Mirza Aslam Beg. Others added their own list of army misdemeanours. In
an editorial, The Nation noted, "There have been no inquiries of
this kind into military actions such as the law and order operations in
Baluchistan and Sind, and operations in Siachen and, lately, Kargil."
It's the
persistent demand in the media that a commission must be appointed to
investigate Kargil that seems to be unnerving Musharraf. With reports
indicating that nearly 500 Pakistani soldiers and countless civilian porters
from Gilgit and Baltistan died in Kargil and were buried in unmarked graves,
there is a clamour for the army to come clean on its role. The term "rogue
army" is being bandied about.
In resurrecting
a grisly past, the HRC has ended up haunting the present. It has unwittingly
forced Pakistan to come to terms with itself.
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