Pak army chief wants officers to learn from Indian democracy

TIL Desk/World/Islamabad-In an unusual piece of advice to senior officers, Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has told them that the army had “no business” in running the government and asked them to read a book on how India has succeeded in keeping the military out of politics. “The army has no business trying to run the government. The army must remain within its constitutionally defined role,” Bajwa as saying.

He also asked his officers to read a book titled ‘Army and Nation’ written by Steven I Wilkinson, a professor of Political Science and International Relations at Yale University, about Indian Army’s relationship with the civilian government after independence.

Bajwa’s comments during a gathering of senior army officers at Rawalpindi Garrison in the General Headquarters in December indicate a shift in Pakistan army’s stance on its relationship with the civilian government and could be good news for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government.

Bajwa, who took over from Raheel Sharif with whom the Prime Minister had a uneasy relationship, communicated to his officers in unequivocal terms that there should be cooperation and not competition between army and civilian leadership of the country.  The civil-military equation in Pakistan has always been a thorny issue.