<. Basically, US and Saudi Arabia have been "outsourcing" work to the Pakistani military for decades.> < That the extremists started controlling the Pak military in the last 5-10 years. And now the tide is being reversed by US action in Afghanistan and Iraq.>
Pakistan was part of Seato and Cento a near counter weight to Nato in this region, when Nehru was forming non-aligned movement with the kinds of Sukarno, Tito and Nasser, Pakistan had decided to entrench itself firmly in the US camp, it was political decision based on the very survival of the country. With India in the East looking very unfavorably to what Indians than considered dismemberment of the country by Jinnah and an economy that was fledgling, you may be surprised to know that this geographical area what we call now as Pakistan was contributing only 4.5% to the total GNP of the Indian Union, today in 57 years Pakistan is 26% of the Indian present economy, either the Indians didn’t do well or Pakistan did well, perhaps it can be argued that since Pakistan is considered a ‘failed state’ by every one basically due to their shortsightedness in appreciating some finer points within the nation media especially the Indian media have generally made very wrong assumption about what Pakistan can do. I talked about this to owner of ‘India Today’ in our box at the first ODI match in Lahore. The comments as above about outsourcing work are little harsh, the Guides Cavalry and Probyn horse Pakistan strike units for example have bene in Service of here Majesty since 1857. The mutiny which Indians call ‘War of independence’ and was basically mutiny by Jats, Siks and Nawab of Ohudh was crushed by man from North. These people had brought Bahadur Shah Zafar and reinstalled him as Mughal Emperor of India, this what the Hindus did in ‘war of independence’ it was Nicholson with his ‘Pathan’ present day ‘Pakistan boundary’ warriors who reached the gates of Delhi and crushed the mutiny.
It is well established that post mutiny he Indian colonial master realize that Muslims are better trusted than the jats or Sikhs or muslims of UP, this is political blasphemy, no Pakistani elite will ever admit this contravention of their ancestors on their own people but I for sake of history cannot deny the excesses done by the northerners in making sure that Raj stays, although in same vein I also believed that a further 100 years of slavery under Brits did far good than worst, we could have been a region strife with war if Mughal dynasty removal was not proceeded by the British colonialism that established the economic infrastructure of India that helped a billion people to survive. The reason that Muslims happened to be 35% of the United Indian forces in 1947 has lot to do with the divide and rule policy and British dependence on the loyalty of the ‘soldier belts areas’ it was for this that on division Muslims being 1/5th of Indian Union ended up with the entire Muslim force of the Indian army as most opted out for Pakistan, so from day one Army had a huge disproportionate size of man power, India on the other hand being 5 times larger only got 65 percent of the man of the Union Army.
Institution of Armed forces in new incipient Pakistan was huge and sucked nearly 40% of resources, Punjab a dominant province with Punjabis forming the core martial races had domination over every other government department that was bound to happen, the software of Islam did not really help either, no Islamic country professes to be a true parliamentary democracy they are all hampered with some kind of monarchy, strong man dependency or military interventionist rule, I have my doubts that if partition would not have happened we would not seen Indian division on sectarian and ideological lines like Yugoslavia, the Indian continent by partition saved itself form repercussions of tearing itself like Yugoslavia later on, although I concede that 1947 was no less ugly in terms of human life loss.
Pakistan Army as I have always said is a very organized institution in the country it has kept warring factions within a predominantly Muslim nation spaced out, it has helped heal the would sometime helped open dastardly wounds too like creation and birth of Bangladesh. It was not an accident that Indian Hindu majority was ruled by Muslims Mogul emperors and I assure you that Azad very rightly put that Muslims ruled India as Gods and this present rage stems form those lost opportunities, if these warring nations would have not been set apart I doubt Indian or Pakistan could have made any sizable progress other than rip each other apart like sometime we see in Ahmadabad, the separation has helped heal wounds and recent globalization efforts and war on terrorism has helped change the basic script of Pakistani army that was dictated by diktats of ‘ army of Allah concept’ and an ‘army of Islam,’ even Pakistani nuclear device was named as an Islamic bomb by no other lesser a secular person than Bhutto.
Lot of water has passed since, I take a long view and a historical view of events right or wrong forces of construction win over dark forces of destruction. ‘Outsourcing’ has been part of this army ethos, first world war to second world war and all major events soldiers of our region both India and Pakistan have served with gallantry and pride. Indian political acumen at partition with likes of Gandhi, Nehru and Vallubhai Patel helped grow Indian on a trajectory that was secular and insular in terms of economic direction, a more socialist model, Pakistan from day one looked at Washington; they rather refused an invitation form USSR and opted for Americans, all weapons from Koran wars and other disputes were given as aid to Pakistan, the reason was that although Pakistan had huge disproportionate size of Army it had no means to arm this force, the Indians did not do the division of the pool fairly this was the reason of ‘maran bhart’ by Gandhi, he wanted and was ready to die for fair share of Pakistan be allotted to them.
American opened China through Pakistan, they got spying over Russian through budber air base, they confronted the entire USSR invasion through a proxy war by Pakistan Army, now if you call all this as outsourcing I think it is rather an alliance that dates back centuries, US wants a disciplined armed forces if in case things go out of hand in Saudi Arabia, the only force that can enter holy cities for peace keeping or keeping revolt under control will be non Arab and army without Arab rivalry history, Turkish and Pakistanis are two forces but Ottoman history denies Turkey its role within commotion of Arab Islamic crescent.
Disciplined Armies have lot of work cut out for them in near future as changes happen in Middle East, this is not the last you will hear about Pakistan Army as an ally to US, let this be clear whatever that lunatic right-winger tell Carl, the fact is that US army closeness and alliance with Pakistan Army is very close and for rightful reasons, as Rice had recently declared that Alqaeda could not be crippled without northern hinterland help and Afghanistan could have been attacked by planes flying out of Pathan kot as the Indians wanted, for Islamic world disputes and quarrels of oil US have two key allies one is the Turkish secular Army other the Pakistani Islamic Army with huge influence of US stamped on it, and now they are taking a lesson and instead of ignoring them engaging them, helping US to sort out the sore points and sanctuaries of jihadi elements. |
