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Criminalization of Pakistan Army
K. Ashraf
Hayatullah Dawar’s murder on the hands of ISI
is neither first nor last despicable incident. It simply tells
that Pakistan Army has turned into a criminal institution and
people of Pakistan have to deal with this institution as any
responsible nation should deal with criminal individuals or
institutions.
The process of criminalization of Pakistan
army started in 1954 when General Ayub Khan started blackmailing
civilian administration. He reinforced this process in 1958 by
taking over Pakistan.
This process of criminalization of Pakistan
Army continued during generals Yahya Khan and Zia ul Haq’s
periods. Agencies directly controlled by armed forces of
Pakistan sometimes secretly and sometimes openly kidnapped,
jailed, brutalized and killed civilian Pakistanis who challenged
them.
In general Musharraf’s period, this process
of criminalization of Pakistan army has reached to new heights.
People are being picked up from their homes
during the middle of night, taken to unknown places and killed
brutally without trace. Their relatives go from one police
station to the other and from one court to the other, but they
cannot find out the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Such happenings should be eye opener for all
those forces who support general Musharraf or military rule.
Such forces are not limited to politicians; judges and
journalists, there are many civilian Pakistanis who knowingly or
unknowingly support general Musharraf or Pakistan army.
The fact of the matter is generals Ayub Khan,
Yahya Khan and Zia ul Haq were criminals who committed crimes
against the people and state of Pakistan. So is general
Musharraf. There is no difference between one general and the
other. Pakistan army as an institution has been fully
criminalized.
Beating a police hawaldar in Lahore, raping a
doctor in Balochistan, killing land tillers in Okara, cutting
underhand land deals throughout Pakistan, facilitating drug
trafficking from Afghanistan to Iran and other parts of the
world and training infiltrators and exporting them to different
countries to commit terrorist activities are routine crimes
committed by the higher and lower echelons of Pakistan army.
When one general breaks the law at national
level and illegally takes over the country, then other crimes
become petty matters for him. Then, he doesn’t mind killing one
journalist or few hundred civilians in Gilgit or few thousands
of innocent civilians in Balochistan or Waziristan.
First, it is the responsibility of
professional and honest leaders of Pakistan army to stop the
process of criminalization in their institution. It is in their
benefit to decriminalize this institution. The foremost thing to
decriminalize army is to pull out of politics and civil areas of
Pakistani society.
It is also about time, the civil segments of
Pakistan society stop supporting criminal generals and their
illegal control over the state of Pakistan.
We also want to remind
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