General Kayalni, the national realist of Pakistan 

-COL DR. ABDUL RUFF

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Generally, the military bosses do not seek peace and hence promote war situations  so that it could draw more and more resources from the nation. 

Never before a serving military general of a nation has talked about coordinated development of a nation  in favour of national economy  that ultimately takes care of security needs as well. General Kayalni of Pakistan for the first time in history of military existence has clearly spelled out the need for spending more on national development, people's welfare than on military.  . 

recently, Pakistani Supreme Court delivered a shocking verdict indicting the Pakistani premier Yousuf Raza Gilani for his refusal to file case against president Zardari. In the process a consequential pronouncement by Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that Pakistani regime must concentrate on people's needs first and foremost has created a fundamental shift in military theory practised so far with military seeking more and more resources. 

Kayani’s remarks to the media on April 18 that Pakistan should spend less on defence and more on development has dealt a crippling body blow to the theory expounded by many military theoreticians. 

It presents examples of incompetence in British military history over the near hundred year period from the Crimean War to the Allied defeat at Anaheim and identifies reasons for this failing which, he affirms, are applicable to all the armies of the world. Military, generally speaking, in wanting more resources by arm-twisting the corrupt regimes, misguides the  public with a tendency to suppress unpalatable information that conflicts with preconceptions, by a fundamental conservatism and adherence to outmoded traditions, and the overestimation of one’s own capabilities and a corresponding underestimation of enemy potential. The parliaments just give whatever is asked for by the military establishments even by diverting the funds meant for welfare measure.s 

All assumptions on which military theory of Dixon had based his thesis were belied by Gen Kayani. Kayani came across as the ultimate realist when he told journalists that the Pakistan army understood “very well that there should be a very good balance between defence and development. You cannot be spending on defence alone and forgetting about development.” National security, he said, was inextricably linked to the well-being of the people.

For those who advance the notion that people's welfare  is more important to military's extra needs, there may not have been anything novel in this statement but, in the context of  militarised globe today, especially of Pakistan, it is new thinking at its best. Never before in the country’s history has an army chief so emphatically stressed the primacy of self-sustaining economic growth as an indispensable prerequisite for national security and stability. External assistance on which the country is so heavily dependent has reduced to a trickle, the deplorable investment climate has sparked a flight of capital, power outages have resulted in the closure of industries and rendered thousands jobless, and skyrocketing inflation has made an estimated 90 million people food-insecure. 

The Pakistan Planning Commission’s biannual report on “Change in Cost of Food Basket” shows that the prices of essential commodities such as wheat, sugar, pulses, vegetable oil and meat increased by a stunning 79 percent in the last four years. In 2007 the cost of this “minimum food basket” was Rs960 but by December 2011 it soared to Rs1,790.

Of course, never before has a Pakistani army chief declared so unambiguously that “we would like to spend less on defence, definitely.” This represents a radical departure from the previous concept under which India was considered the perpetual enemy and any change in this adversarial relationship was inconceivable. 

Kayani’s concerns are indeed the concerns of humanity at large.  Kayani’s apprehensions find fearful confirmation in Pakistan’s economic profile. The Kayani doctrine, therefore, envisages a comprehensive national security concept built around peaceful development of Pakistan  so that everybody can concentrate on the well-being of the people. he also speaks about peaceful coexistence between Pakistan and India. But india wants to steal for the military even those resources meant for the people as well.   

In a nuclearised South Asia war is no longer an option but the tedious process of negotiating a settlement of Pakistan-India disputes has always been accident prone. The primary beneficiaries of tensions between the two countries are  reluctance of  Indian and Pakistan to arrive at a settled  proposition to  grant full sovereignty to Jammu Kashmir ,now under occupation by both India and Pakistan. 

Furthermore, as the world was brought to the brink of a thermonuclear holocaust with the Cuban missile crisis, President John F Kennedy’s had made an appeal at the height of the Cold War: “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” Kayani  deviated even from this norm by taking thought process to the newer  heights of liberation of humanity from outraged fear complex.  

General Kayalni is now a national realist of Pakistan, seeking to serve  people first and, through them, the military as well. Already, Kayani has mooted the  splendid idea of demilitarizing the Siachen glacier in the  Himalayas that divides Jammu Kashmir into India occupied JK and Pakistan controlled Azad Kashmir. demilitarization would remove tensions  in the region and help Kashmiris come together to live like human as before 1947 when India had forcefully invaded and occupied Jammu Kashmir, killing innocent Kashmiri Muslims.  

The continued Indian occupation of JK remains the  main cause for tensions in the region. But India does not show any inclination to directly address the Kashmir issue.  New Delhi has yet to respond the Pakistani call for demilitarization because it wants to keep the Kashmiris divided and attacked by Indian state terrorists.  Reunification of Kashmiri territories and  bringing together of all Kashmiris would derail Indian agenda for colonies.