Will the Naval Chief resign? I have been a regular walker at the DHA’s Nisar Shaheed Park. Some three years ago, a part of the park was taken over by a group of people who converted it into a prayer area. I wrote to the then DHA administrator, that the park is already blessed with 4 mosques located in its immediate periphery (less than 5 minutes walking distance), and thus there was no need to add another. I stated that very soon this casual arrangement will upgrade itself into a boundary wall, cemented platform, mats, prayer-time clocks, benches, loudspeakers et al. Three years down the road, every word of this forecast came true. I had also raised a question if the DHA would allow Non-Muslims and Muslims of many other shades to also build similar mini-mosques in the park or was DHA promoting only one particular school of thought. Needless to say that the DHA never bothered to respond. Members of the armed forces come from a very wide spectrum of social, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Molding them into a cohesive and motivated force requires building on commonalities and not on differences. Thus while enabling all members to freely practice their faith, it must be ensured that no groups are favoured or allowed intrusion for the purpose of down-loading a particular brand of beliefs. Almost in every major attack from GHQ to Mehran Base to the Naval Dockyard there is a suggestion of the insiders’ involvement. These individuals had been brain washed by extremist groups pretending as harmless and noble evangelists. Clearly the leaders failed to see the long term impacts of religiously loaded groups making in-roads into military establishments, bases and residential areas. Even now, as stated by Ayesha Siddiqa in one of her recent articles, the households of at least one military service have been opened up for Al Huda by the senior leadership. Often beginning with benign nobleness, many of these intrusions have finally spiraled into a confusion about where does duty to religion end and to the state begin. Now that the role of many insiders in the Dockyard attack has been well established, could the process of reform begin by the Naval Chief setting up an honourable tradition – to resign for failing to prevent the ‘jihadi’ militants from waging a war against Pakistan Navy. Perhaps that may also prompt the Punjab CM to follow suit.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:25:30 +0000
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