Trouble brewing between Pakistan government and army

In what is billed as a ‘Sharif Vs Sharif’ tussle, there seems to be trouble brewing between Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, and the country’s Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif.

The two Sharifs met on Tuesday to review the implementation of the ‘National Action Plan’, which was brought out in January to stamp out terrorism, particularly in the North Western part of Pakistan. The NAP came into being in the wake of the killing of 145 school children in Peshawar by Tehrik-i-Taliban, a.k.a., Pakistani Taliban.

What transpired in the meeting between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) is not clear. But the subsequent ‘press release war’ amply indicates that all’s not well between the two Sharifs.

An early sign of it came in the form of a press release issued by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the PR arm of Pakistan’s armed forces. The release said, somewhat boastfully, that the COAS acknowledged the “full support of the nation for our ongoing operations to eliminate terrorism and extremism.” The owning up of credit, by the use of the word “our operations” was duly noted by all Pakistan observers.

But more was to come. The release said that the COAS “however, underlined the need for matching/complimentary governance initiatives for long term gains of operations and enduring peace across the country.”

This has been interpreted as the army telling the government “we are doing our job well, you are not”.

The army is unhappy over what it sees as the government dragging its feet on a number of issues, such as action against terror financing, rehabilitation of internally displaced persons and reforms in the ‘federally administered tribal areas’ (equivalent of India’s Union Territories). In particular, the army is said to be dissatisfied with the government not able to check foreign fund flow into madrassah (theology schools).

It is tough for a civilian government to control the madrassahs. “They (madrassahs) won’t even give their bank account numbers to the government, leave alone disclose sources of funding,” says Najam Sethi, editor of Friday Times and a political commentator. (Sethi, incidentally, is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and has been an interim Chief Minister of the Pakistani state of Punjab.)

The ISPR press release had the country’s Parliament in an uproar. The opposition used this opportunity to attack the government. Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, said, “I don’t know what the military wants, but good governance is the demand of the people of entire Pakistan.” Members of the ruling party said that the ISPR press release was “unconstitutional”.

Then Nawaz Sharif hit back. In its own press release the government stressed it would continue to pursue the National Action Plan. Then came the fire. “However, it is to be noted that the implementation of the NAP is a shared responsibility and all institutions have to play their role while remaining within the ambit of the Constitution.”  The reference to the constitution was a reprimand to the army, telling it not to cross the line.

This mini episode has caused a flutter in Pakistan, particularly because it flies in the face of the general impression that had been around that under the two Sharifs, the government-army equation was good.

Next week, General Sharif is going to the United States to meet his counterparts—a meeting that has been fixed at Sharif’s request. Nawaz Sharif was in the US twice recently—in September to address the United Nations General Assembly and in the following month, when he met President Obama.

Pakistan observers are keenly waiting to see if what General Sharif says in Washington is any different that what Prime Minister Sharif did. 

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