Why is General Asim Munir’s US visit jinxed?

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Pakistan Army chief, General Asim Munir’s maiden visit to the United States of America seems to have struck a discordant chord even before he had time to step into the Pentagon.

As soon as the General and his entourage had departed, his spin doctors went into overdrive, passing on orders to the television channels and newspapers that coverage of Palestinians must be restricted and so should be any news of PTI and women leaders like Khadija Shah, a well-known Pakistani American fashion designer who had been locked up for tweeting against the army.

But luck was not on his side as the General found out quickly.

Within hours of his departure, came one of the most devastating attacks on a military camp in Dera Ismail Khan, killing about 24 soldiers, and injuring scores of others. Although the media was asked to focus on some 27 terrorists killed in multiple military operations elsewhere, the sad truth was that terrorists had once again brazenly challenged the army. The attack came within days after a military offensive was launched against TTP in the Tirah valley, a troublesome sanctuary on the Af-Pak borders. It was another nail in the string of failures on the part of the army to tame the militant groups and their patron, the Afghan Taliban which was once an ally. Even the final vestiges of `strategic depth` now lay smouldering.

The attack could give General Munir and his men a ready excuse for American help in tackling this menace, maybe even allow the US drones to operate in the Pakistan air space, but the image of a shaken army cannot be wished away.

Then came another, equally devastating assault on the army’s jugular vein-Kashmir. The Supreme Court of India validated the government’s 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 and freed Kashmir of all historical baggage, including Pakistan’s intervention through terror and machinations, helped in large measure by Western nations. For the past 70-odd years, the army has brainwashed the people of Pakistan, and a lot of others in different parts of the world, about the manufactured dispute over Kashmir. The Kashmir issue has only made the Generals more richer and powerful while the people across the country have become poorer and desperate, stumbling from crisis to crisis–be it wheat flour crisis or power shortages or disappearances. No one has gone out onto the streets of Pakistan to protest over Kashmir but thousands of women and men are marching to Quetta seeking justice from the military which has taken away their boys and fathers.

For General Asim, the judgement on Kashmir could not have come at a wrong time–he cannot brush it away; it is too big a problem which challenges the very soul of the army. There are only two options before him–either quietly change the administrative structure of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan or find ways to disturb Kashmir and India. Both options first require a cohesive team in GHQ and an able government in Islamabad, both of which are missing at present.

Then there have been smaller pinpricks. First was former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s pointed barbs at the army for removing him. His references to Kargil and Imran Khan are clear potshots at Rawalpindi, do not augur well for the already dented image of the army which General Munir is acutely aware of. To add to the image trouble, the Supreme Court of Pakistan decided to take forward the case of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a former Prime Minister who was hanged to death by the military dictator, Zia-ul Haq. The hearing, which begins in January, is only going to dent the image of the army further.

None of these augur well for General Asim Munir whose tentative effort to reach out to Washington could turn out to be a disaster. (ASIAN LITE)