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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, JUNE 4: It is a rare combination of two officers that has been made at General Headquarters, Rawalpindi, but it is a combine which has prompted Pakistan to undertake an adventure in Kargil which could well boomerang badly on Islamabad.
The complexes8217; of Gen Parvez Musharraf, Chief of Army Staff, and the craftiness8217; of his Chief of General Staff CGS, Lt Gen Mohammed Aziz, has created a situation from which Pakistan will have great difficulty in withdrawing without serious repercussions.
8220;Being a Mohajir, Gen Musharraf had to prove himself to be more Punjabi than even the overwhelming majority of the Pakistan Army,8221; said an informed South Block official. 8220;And then, having been installed byNawaz Sharif in such unusual circumstances, he has to prove to the Army that he is an independent thinker.8221; He was alluding to the removal of Gen Jahangir Karamat by Nawaz Sharif last year. A Punjabi, Gen Karamat was widely regarded as a high-calibre professional soldier, 8220;with depth and vision8221;, the official said.
Gen Musharraf is keen to prove a number of points, 8220;that he is nobody8217;s man, a power to reckon with, that he can produce results,8221; said the South Block official. A constant charge from within 8220;their system8221; against Gen Musharraf is that, having been appointed by Nawaz Sharif,8221; he is the PM8217;s man. And this in an Army like Pakistan8217;s is a liability, particularly when he happens to be a Mohajir, migrant from UP,8221; said the official.
There is also added pressure from within the Army to make the Chief a 8220;power to reckon8221; with, since he is a political appointee having superseded two other officers, 8220;both of whom had a strong military pedigree8221;. Added to that is his own professionalexperience. Commissioned in the Regiment of the Artillery, Gen Musharraf has had two tenures in the Special Service Group SSG, the Pakistan Army8217;s elite special forces. 8220;By our reckoning, he has served about seven years in the SSG,8221; said another senior government official. The SSG is at the forefront of the Pakistan Army8217;s high-altitude and low-intensity operations, trained as they are for unconventional actions.
The CGS, however, is a completely different career profile. An infantry man, commissioned in the Punjab Regiment, Lt Gen Mohammed Aziz is the first in Pakistan8217;s history to be appointed to this key position at GHQ Rawalpindi despite not having commanded a corps.
Lt-Gen Aziz has been involved in unconventional operations for a considerable period. Prior to his appointment as CGS, Lt Gen Aziz was the number two in Inter-Services Intelligence. He was handling Afghanistan operations, and obviously hoped to repeat the Taliban experience here, said the official.
