Dauren Koptleuov
In the beginning of 2017, ex-General of Pakistan, Raheel Sharif, was appointed as a first Commander-in-Chief (The Guardian, 2017), moving to Saudi Arabia in order to head the army of the Islamic Military Alliance (IMA) (Dawn, 2017). According to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the United States (2015), the purpose of this organization is to unite 39 Arabic, African and Middle East countries to fight terrorism and to counter the formation of such organizations as ISIS, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and others. Whereas the fact of creation of such anti-terroristic military organization that is already known as “Arabic NATO” is accepted with general optimism, Pakistani civil-military situation can possibly make government regret of “losing” such cadre as Sharif.
Pakistan is known as a state with military, which has a significant influence over the political matters of the country. According to Huffington Post (2016), Sharif was the first military leader who decided to cooperate with Pakistani government. Moreover, Sharif is popular because of successful elimination of terrorist threat in the region as well as criminal control of the Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan (Huffington Post, 2016). That already demonstrates the weakness of government, as police is unable to control criminal activity even in the largest cities due to its either corruptness or incompetence. However, with the Sharif involvement in IMA activities and leaving the post of the General, eliminated threats may become relevant once again.
Historically, Pakistani government had literally neither objective nor subjective control over the military. The reason why the military has such amount of influence is most probably due to the continuous conflict with the India, where Pakistani military was the most important sphere in the state (Huffington Post, 2016). With the resignation of Sharif, already weakened civil-military situation in Pakistan will deteriorate unless there is another military leader that is willing to cooperate with the government. What is more possible to happen, is that dissatisfied military would overthrow weak civilian government and proclaim military rule. In case of Pakistan becoming a “junta”, as Weeks (2014) would put it, it is more likely to favor armed conflict rather than peaceful diplomatic resolution (Weeks, 2014), which may bring every more harm to the state and its citizens, considering unstable situation in the region.
___________
Links and references:
Weeks, Jessica L. P. 2014. Dictators at War and Peace. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press
http://embassies.mofa.gov.sa/sites/usa/EN/PublicAffairs/Statements/Pages/Joint-Statement-on-the-Formation-of-the-Islamic-Military-Alliance.aspx
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/08/former-pakistan-army-chief-raheel-sharif-lead-muslim-nato
https://www.dawn.com/news/1328349
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raza-habib-raja/why-is-military-so-powerful_b_13269780.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raza-habib-raja/pakistans-most-popular-ge_b_10954454.html
In the beginning of 2017, ex-General of Pakistan, Raheel Sharif, was appointed as a first Commander-in-Chief (The Guardian, 2017), moving to Saudi Arabia in order to head the army of the Islamic Military Alliance (IMA) (Dawn, 2017). According to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the United States (2015), the purpose of this organization is to unite 39 Arabic, African and Middle East countries to fight terrorism and to counter the formation of such organizations as ISIS, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and others. Whereas the fact of creation of such anti-terroristic military organization that is already known as “Arabic NATO” is accepted with general optimism, Pakistani civil-military situation can possibly make government regret of “losing” such cadre as Sharif.
Pakistan is known as a state with military, which has a significant influence over the political matters of the country. According to Huffington Post (2016), Sharif was the first military leader who decided to cooperate with Pakistani government. Moreover, Sharif is popular because of successful elimination of terrorist threat in the region as well as criminal control of the Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan (Huffington Post, 2016). That already demonstrates the weakness of government, as police is unable to control criminal activity even in the largest cities due to its either corruptness or incompetence. However, with the Sharif involvement in IMA activities and leaving the post of the General, eliminated threats may become relevant once again.
Historically, Pakistani government had literally neither objective nor subjective control over the military. The reason why the military has such amount of influence is most probably due to the continuous conflict with the India, where Pakistani military was the most important sphere in the state (Huffington Post, 2016). With the resignation of Sharif, already weakened civil-military situation in Pakistan will deteriorate unless there is another military leader that is willing to cooperate with the government. What is more possible to happen, is that dissatisfied military would overthrow weak civilian government and proclaim military rule. In case of Pakistan becoming a “junta”, as Weeks (2014) would put it, it is more likely to favor armed conflict rather than peaceful diplomatic resolution (Weeks, 2014), which may bring every more harm to the state and its citizens, considering unstable situation in the region.
___________
Links and references:
Weeks, Jessica L. P. 2014. Dictators at War and Peace. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press
http://embassies.mofa.gov.sa/sites/usa/EN/PublicAffairs/Statements/Pages/Joint-Statement-on-the-Formation-of-the-Islamic-Military-Alliance.aspx
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/08/former-pakistan-army-chief-raheel-sharif-lead-muslim-nato
https://www.dawn.com/news/1328349
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raza-habib-raja/why-is-military-so-powerful_b_13269780.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raza-habib-raja/pakistans-most-popular-ge_b_10954454.html
No comments:
Post a Comment