Pakistan's Insider Jobs?

To turn against one's own country and work for an enemy organization, one has to be embittered to the core, face repression, thwarted in ambition, blocked at every corner, or witness family members raped and killed. Money can only nudge a person into working against his country, the underlying motive has to do with something snapping deep down. The motivation behind the assassination of Indira Gandhi was a perceived sense of repression.

Pakistan started off well with Mohamed Jinnah promising a secular government. Secularism did not last long. Christians and Hindus were soon made second class citizens and those who could afford it fled the country. Those who could not leave, subsisted doing lowly jobs. They could not do any damage to Pakistan as they were not in a position to do so as they lived a hand to mouth existence, and were not employed in sensitive positions. The Ahmadiyas were declared non Muslims and many fled the country. The Shias of the Northern Areas were brutally put down and could not stand the might of the praetorian Pakistani army. The Baluchis have been putting up a fight blowing up gas pipe lines, but have not managed to take the fight outside Baluchistan into the hinterland. There are no Baluchis, Sindhis, Shias of Northern Area and Ahmadiyas in the Pakistan army. The Pushtuns and Punjabis are well represented in the Pakistani army.

The Pakistani offensive in the NWFP could not have endeared them to the Pushtuns. Video recordings of Pushtuns being beaten and tortured in Swat is reverberating across Pakistan. Pushtun refugees streamed out of Swat just before the crops could be harvested. The Tarbela dam Pushtun oustees are yet to be compensated, and are refugees in their own country. Pushtuns outside NWFP, living in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are not known to own businesses or occupy high government offices, with many living in slums. However, the Pushtun representation in the army is 15 to 22% among officers and 20 to 25% among the rank and file, where as they comprise only 16 % of the population. Four chiefs, Generals Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Gul Hasan Khan and Waheed Kakar have been Pushtuns. However, there are no all Pushtun regiments.

The Pakistani army is known to back-seat-drive Pakistan when a civilian government is in power, and is a government within a government. However, the last few months have seen the inner sanctum of the Pakistani army being violated. The army Head Quarters was attacked and officers taken hostage. The officers Mosque near the Head Quarters, a heavily guarded shrine, was penetrated and many high ranking officers slain. Marriots hotel, frequented by the glitterati of Islamabad was devastated. All this could not have happened without insider help. The Pakistan army must have investigated and the findings must be shaking them to the core. When will the Pushtuns in the army be disarmed is the question. The cracks in the Pakistan army are bound to show soon.