02-09-2008, 12:04 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://nightwatch.afcea.org/NightWatch_20080207.htm
Pakistan: The Pakistan Army held its 106th Corps Commanders Conference today in Rawalpindi, which was chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani, according to multiple local news services. Kayani directed that all serving officers occupying civilian posts will relinquish their military posts within six months. <b>âThere are around 300 serving military personnel currently on deputation to civil departments,â </b>Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Athar Abbas told The News. Under the new policy, some general officers may revert to the Army, but others apparently can stay in their lucrative civilian jobs after resigning their commissions. Each will be reviewed on a case-to-case basis.
This is Kayaniâs first major decision to reverse the worst of the patronage abuses by Musharraf who padded the government payroll with supporters and forced his detractors into retirement. <b>Todayâs report is the first to provide a sense of the scale of the senior officers doing civilian jobs. </b>
Security. The interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz fenced with words in his statements to the press today about developments in South Waziristan. Agence France-Presse reported Nawaz said <b>"There is no announced cease-fire; there is a de facto cease-fire between militants and government troops." </b>A tribal council comprising government representatives and tribal elders will be formed to handle the peace negotiations, he said.
What is instructive about the above item is it shows the formality with which the federal government enters talks with the tribes.<b> Many western analysts presume that Pakistan can assert control over the Agencies as the US Army did over the American Indian lands. </b>That is a mistaken notion for many reasons which include the Constitution, formal treaties and even recruitment into the Army. The recruiting regiments of the Pakistan Army are regional, not national. For example, the Frontier Force Battalions in the Army are recruited from the North West Frontier Province.
The other instructive point is that the ceasefire and talks signify that the leaders of the fighters have accepted the wisdom of the tribal elders that it is far better to fight in Afghanistan than for the tribe to incur shelling by the Pakistan Army. In other words, Pakistani negotiators succeeded in redirecting the destructive impulses of the Mahsud youth into Afghanistan. That is a welcome portent for a benign security environment as Pakistanâs general elections approach.
The Pakistan Army now can concentrate on backstopping election security instead of having to worry about counter insurgency operations in South Waziristan.
<b>For Afghanistan, it means that the fighters have secured their base. One of the most notorious Taliban leaders, Siraj Haqqani was present in todayâs jirga</b>. Haqqaniâs men, for example, can now focus on fighting the Americans at their front in Afghanistan without having to maintain sufficient forces in Pakistan to resist Pakistan Army pressure in the rear.
At the Brookings Institution, an assemblage of American and Pakistani luminaries discussed conditions in Pakistan today and US relations. Former Pakistan ambassador to the United States General (retd) Jehangir Karamat said sees a sustained long-term strategic relationship between the two allies as any transient developments should not be allowed to overtake their overall goal towards security and stability. The former Army chief said ideas of "covert or overt" US intervention in the tribal areas "are not going to address the threat" of terrorism on the Western border with Afghanistan
As Chief of the Army Staff General Jehangir Karamat worked with President of Pakistan Farooq Leghari to back a constitutional maneuver to force former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her cronies from power in 1996 for corruption. Jehangir Karamat is one of an elite few Pakistani general officers who acted to clean up the government during a time of crisis without ordering the Army to seize the government and without advancing his personal fortunes.
General Karamat worked within the constitution by backing the President of the republic. He resigned in 1998 to protest abuses by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the former Colonel Commandant and Colonel-in-Chief of the Armored Corps. He would make a steady and reliable leader, depending on his health, who could restore constitutional government and respect for the Pakistan Army.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pakistan: The Pakistan Army held its 106th Corps Commanders Conference today in Rawalpindi, which was chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani, according to multiple local news services. Kayani directed that all serving officers occupying civilian posts will relinquish their military posts within six months. <b>âThere are around 300 serving military personnel currently on deputation to civil departments,â </b>Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Athar Abbas told The News. Under the new policy, some general officers may revert to the Army, but others apparently can stay in their lucrative civilian jobs after resigning their commissions. Each will be reviewed on a case-to-case basis.
This is Kayaniâs first major decision to reverse the worst of the patronage abuses by Musharraf who padded the government payroll with supporters and forced his detractors into retirement. <b>Todayâs report is the first to provide a sense of the scale of the senior officers doing civilian jobs. </b>
Security. The interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz fenced with words in his statements to the press today about developments in South Waziristan. Agence France-Presse reported Nawaz said <b>"There is no announced cease-fire; there is a de facto cease-fire between militants and government troops." </b>A tribal council comprising government representatives and tribal elders will be formed to handle the peace negotiations, he said.
What is instructive about the above item is it shows the formality with which the federal government enters talks with the tribes.<b> Many western analysts presume that Pakistan can assert control over the Agencies as the US Army did over the American Indian lands. </b>That is a mistaken notion for many reasons which include the Constitution, formal treaties and even recruitment into the Army. The recruiting regiments of the Pakistan Army are regional, not national. For example, the Frontier Force Battalions in the Army are recruited from the North West Frontier Province.
The other instructive point is that the ceasefire and talks signify that the leaders of the fighters have accepted the wisdom of the tribal elders that it is far better to fight in Afghanistan than for the tribe to incur shelling by the Pakistan Army. In other words, Pakistani negotiators succeeded in redirecting the destructive impulses of the Mahsud youth into Afghanistan. That is a welcome portent for a benign security environment as Pakistanâs general elections approach.
The Pakistan Army now can concentrate on backstopping election security instead of having to worry about counter insurgency operations in South Waziristan.
<b>For Afghanistan, it means that the fighters have secured their base. One of the most notorious Taliban leaders, Siraj Haqqani was present in todayâs jirga</b>. Haqqaniâs men, for example, can now focus on fighting the Americans at their front in Afghanistan without having to maintain sufficient forces in Pakistan to resist Pakistan Army pressure in the rear.
At the Brookings Institution, an assemblage of American and Pakistani luminaries discussed conditions in Pakistan today and US relations. Former Pakistan ambassador to the United States General (retd) Jehangir Karamat said sees a sustained long-term strategic relationship between the two allies as any transient developments should not be allowed to overtake their overall goal towards security and stability. The former Army chief said ideas of "covert or overt" US intervention in the tribal areas "are not going to address the threat" of terrorism on the Western border with Afghanistan
As Chief of the Army Staff General Jehangir Karamat worked with President of Pakistan Farooq Leghari to back a constitutional maneuver to force former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her cronies from power in 1996 for corruption. Jehangir Karamat is one of an elite few Pakistani general officers who acted to clean up the government during a time of crisis without ordering the Army to seize the government and without advancing his personal fortunes.
General Karamat worked within the constitution by backing the President of the republic. He resigned in 1998 to protest abuses by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the former Colonel Commandant and Colonel-in-Chief of the Armored Corps. He would make a steady and reliable leader, depending on his health, who could restore constitutional government and respect for the Pakistan Army.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->