PAKISTAN ARMY : “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah ” (“Faith, Piety, to strive in the path of Allah) .,
( They Dared, but Did He Care..? )
When the Bugles Fade ( Lament of Regular Pakstani Army Soldiers killed in Kargil 1999, in India’s Operation ” Vijay”)

Its taps, and the last note of the last post is a distant discord;

…… the bugles fade

away, &

like old soldiers who never die,

…but just slip out of public memory;

yet, we who defended Three Pimples, Shivling and Tiger Hill

will never fade away, but lie

unsung, unheard under the piling snow, the ice & driving sleet, for ever more,

uncovered, unheard and unsung.

General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani & Co are reportedly distancing themselves from President General Parvez Musharraf. The buzz on the wire is that, having had enough of his wont to ‘run with the hares & hunt with the hounds’, the US is about to dump him. And the scepter of his being impeached does not seem to go away either, despite the new PM, Gilani, in office. He does not seem to be finding favour with the new coalition government now being hammered out in Pakistan either; which is trying all the tricks in the trade to at least have his wings clipped. The latest on him is, that, he is being prodded on to resign after giving him amnesty for all actions of his.

America is the final arbiter in Pakistan. The other being the Army and Allah, though not necessarily in that order, always. Yet the Company; the Pakistan Army; that is, along with the clout of the Fauji Foundation, and despite the inherent corrosion of values as a result of meddling in politics of a tribal-loyalties dominant state; is the one that calls the shots in Pakistan, a near failed state; that, has always been on the front burners of the West since its inception on 14 August 1947. It was a parting shot from the departing colonial Brits.

Now it has gained strategic importance on its own geographic and cartographic merit since 9/11. Whatever, The Army is finding it increasingly difficult to cope, which is not surprising to the knowledgeable, given its genesis and traditional stance, which is to tackle only the Hindu Indian threat, with regular infantry supported by artillery, and armoured /mechanised formations in a deep strike role, ( totaling, approximately 600, 000 all ranks tactically grouped in a modestly formidable 30 to 35 divisions or so, under nine corps headquarters ) in a conventional war-fighting role, in the back drop of a Dragon Fire scenario, with Pakistan’s openly declaratory philosophy of the ‘first strike’, giving it an edge. But the scenario has changed rapidly since the attack on the Lal Masjid. And the radical Islamists are crying for blood.

The Pakistan Army finds itself at a loss in a counter-insurgency role. And insurgency is rampant and simmering in Balochistan, Waziristan and the Swat Valley. The militants strike at will at even, a town teeming with the well endowed, and armed to the teeth, soldiery like the spotlessly clean cantonment of Rawalpindi, and also the very the seat of the Government, Islamabad it self, and Lahore! The ISI is also at a wits end now. The Pakistani Army fights on the doctrine of ‘offensive defence” with the Special Services Group (SSG) playing a stellar role, a bit of a dead-loss, in the wake of the jihadi war cry raised by the radicals. Its edge over Indian Army after the introduction of nukes, is debatable, but could be true, if the Operation Parakaraman log-jam that precipitated itself is any indication. Touted as a war he won with out fighting it, Musharraf, will be hard put to come up with justifications for loosing disgracefully the 1971 War for East Pakistan, the 1965 War in the West, the Rann of Kutch testing of strengths, and the 1947-48 J&K Operations, while in declared and open combat! His Operation Badr was a master-stroke but it did nothing to assuage President Clinton’s angst, which indeed helped India conclude successfully, its Operation Vijay.

As partition of the British India became evident and inescapable, The Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, set up the Division of Assets Committee headed by The Great Auk, FM Claude Maud Auchinlechk, an officer commissioned into the Indian Punjab Regiment. It was decided to split the old Indian Army in to two in the ratio of 63:46. The Pakistani Army was created on June 30, 1947 with the division of the British Indian Army and Pakistan received six armoured, eight artillery and eight infantry regiments , but started off with a nucleus of one Maj Gen, two Brigs and 53 Cols/Lt Cols, in its officer cadre. The mixed class composition units were transferred on a sub-unit basis. Officers were given a choice. Many Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun old hands went over, many opted for the Indian Army, Sam Manekshaw was one such officer who left his Frontier Force Regiment (FF) to move to the 5 RGR. In the technical arms only a hundred Muslim officers were available to fill up 600 vacancies, these were filled up by retaining the services of over 500 British Officers ( including one Maj Brown who switched loyalties in the face of the onslaught and rampage, the pillaging, the rape and loot of the so called lashkrars and kabbailis in Skardu, lead by Pakistani Army officers, with disastrous consequences for India, the results of which India is till coping with).The first two Chiefs of Pakistan Army were British to wit: Gen Sir Frank Frank Messervy, and Gen Sir Douglas Gracey ( a former Commanding Officer of the 2/3rd Gorkha Rifles !).

Whatever, the Sandhurst demeanour of the Officer cadre remained ingrained right through the decades. The rank and file continued to be traditional peasantry; the descendants of the lot that faced the Grecian-Persian army of Alexander, The Macedonian, in 526 BC; the Scynthians, the Medes, the Turks and what have you. These country-bred folks have had long a tradition of son following the father into the Army, a tradition also continued in the Army of Independent India to date. Aphorisms like ‘hosh aur vahosh’ remained inbred, loyalty to the unit was staunch. Letting down comrades –in-arms unheard of. Troops remained true to their salt and Colours, as hither to fore. This has manifested in a strange, but a moving and poignant camaraderie amongst the fighting fraternity on the Indian sub-continent.

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