In a strongly worded speech in the parliament, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday that the military is subservient to the parliament and will remain so.
The PM’s remarks came amidst growing rumours that a military coup was on the cards, posing threats to the current government. Dismissing such rumours, Gilani said “I want to make it clear today that conspiracies are being hatched here to pack up the elected government.”
Responding to reports suggesting that defence ministry conceded to the Supreme Court that it had no control over the armed forces or ISI, the prime minister took aim at the military in strong words.
“If they say that they are not under the ministry of defence, then we should get out of this slavery, then this parliament has no importance, this system has no importance, then you are not sovereign.”
Will the PM’s statements be effective in diffusing the rumour mill regarding a military coup?
How will the military respond to the remarks made by the prime minister and the defence ministry?
Should the military be accountable to the elected government?
How will this parliamentary speech affect the political situation of the country?
Dawn.com invites its readers to give their views and suggestions.
military though excellent institution, albeit at the expense of democratic institutions, should be under civilian rule. We may be a Marshall race but at the same time we are trying be a law abiding and equal wrights proponents, this is a dichotomy which we cannot live with. If Pakistan has be to be modern, islamic and just nation then all institutions should be under elected govt, this argument of incompetence civilian side equally
seen on military side. You cannot usurp public freedom in the name of external threat, people are not that stupid, what Mr Haqqani did so foolishly should be done openly and without any shame.
Well spoken PM Gilani ! Its high time the military is shown its place. Whatever be the crisis,there is a judiciary,parliament & afterall the people of Pakistan to sort out the problem.Why the army & who has given them that right ? Whatever happens ,its not an excuse for Kayani or someone else to dictate to the elected govt. Not a single Pakistani should support it.
Hope Pakistanis understand this, this is the time to show who is boss, the People or the Army. PMN-L is playing petty politics, both short sighted and dangerous in speaking up for the army.
agreed, “PMN-L is playing petty politics, both short sighted and dangerous in speaking up for the army.”
For a good governance of the country the military institution has to work within the constitutional boundaries. This also requires that the civil and political sides have to be transparent in their performance. However, at present, the situation is far from this on both the sides as the continuous intervention of the Apex Court shows.
good.
i firmly believe Pakistan has a great future ,we have talent, resources and a younger generation who is ready and willing to take our country into the 21st century as a progressive and peaceful nation.
Democracy should be given a chance to mature and this is possible if all parties are willing to follow the constitution and honor the supremacy of a independent judiciary.
I disagree with you. I do not see any younger generation out on the street taking any action to save democracy in Pakistan. Action speak louder than anything else. Look at Burma, not long ago one of the richest country in the worldl and look what army rule did to the country. Now look at Bangladesh, just 20 years ago millions did not have food to eat on a daily basis. Now Bangladesh is 9th emerging country on Goldman Sack book projected to earn over $50 billion from export. Who could predict Bangladesh will be manufacturing 10,000 tons ship for Germany, Japan and Denmark.? Its happening is because they have working democracy far better than Pakistan.
I cannot recall any nation today being ruled by a military dictator. Pakistan has great assets and such assets have been squandered away by the greed and ego of military dictators. Please allow the parliamentary system to work. Gilani has taken a stand that no-one in Pakistan was brave enough to take. Support him and take control of Pakistan. Best wishes for Pakistan.
Under normal circumstances the army should be under the civil administration.
However, our civilian governments have been so ineffective that army has to play a major role.
It seems that the PM is in a agitated state and under pressure and making irresponsible statements.
His questioning about OBL was a question to himself. Of the six years the three years have been under his Government.
PPP is in tatters and the government has become a laughing stock.
May Allah help save Pakistan.
Not true,
Ever since sacking of elected PM K. Nazimuddin with the backing of military on sideline., Pakistan did not have had any true democracy. It is the military who never let democratic institution to grow in Pakistan. Now think, If there is no democratic institution in the country to support democracy, how a civilian democratic government shall survive?
I understand there was always corruption in Pakistan. That is also because there was never an effectice democratic government in Pakistan. We still have a civil service in Pakistan that works like they are answering to the old British Raj or the Military.
The day you have a civilian government that is competent and even half way selfless (not there to make money for themselves); no military would dare to interfere. When the head of country snubs the rulings of the apex court of the country to keep his stolen millions in foreign banks and his entire party and government machinery is used to scream at the top of their lungs that Mr. President has immunity, don’t expect others to obey you – because they see you for what you are! That does not mean I am for the coup, I am not. The point is if a civilian government itself upholds the law, it has the moral authority to enforce it on the rest of the institutions. A corrupt government that is destroying the country loses any moral authority. I am not for the martial law and not for the military rule. I believe if we didn’t have the military rules, we would have not a Zardari in the presidency and Nawaz and Altaf as the bigwig politicians.
Mr. Arshad,
There you go again, same old argument ! Sir, you need to develop democratic institution first to support democracy in Pakistan. Without democratic institution, it is not possible to have democracy in Pakistan. The fact is Pakistan does not have ENOUGH democratic institutions.
As far as corruption in Pakistan, again you need democratic institution to make rule of law applicable in every part of society. How can one establish a democratic society when the whole civil service is STILL ACT as they are design to answer to the Raj or the dictator. Solid civil service reform will break the back of civil-military bureaucracy that had taken a solid root in Pakistan with the help from Jagirdars and shut the participation of the common man in the affairs of their own country. This is totally unacceptable.
Only good from Pakistan I saw was the long protest of the Pakistani lawyers to restore the supreme court judge. However, I do not see the other educated class on the street telling the military to keep hands-off from the chair.
All political parties should back prime minister on his courageous statement about the due role of army without any political considerations. The credit must also go to PML-N who, though for the first time, very clearly opposes any possible military intervention.
Nations are not built on egoism of any individual or institution, the rule of law has the answer to all our problems. The in-fight or tussle within the government’s institutions has put us at the brink of extinction. Sanity and maturity is the need of the hour if we really want to exist at all
I congratulate PM Gilani for his bold and staright forward speach. Pakistani military and ISI have become a liability to country. This Army and ISI are neither defending the country nor helping civilian government to function well. Mansoor Ijaz plot appears to be a deal concocted by Army & ISI. Army & ISI want to investigate “Mamogate”. How about investigating the Army’s failures like Bangladesh war crimes and Kargil debacle? Let us, be honest, and let a Supreme court appointed panel of judges investigate all these debacles. Then Army and ISI will be in burquas in barracks.
All is not what it seems. Ordinarily such a speech will be very welcome. This time the intentions seem to be different. For him it is far better that the army takes over. He and the PPP can play the victim. Stop all others in their track whilst these guys can plan a return in a few years time.
Submission of “no control over its armed forces and ISI” by defence ministry in Supreme Court is equivalent of dis-owning of Pakistan armed forces and ISI. Government should not have gone this far as this statement has far reaching concequensis. Now, in the eyes of United Nations, Pakistan’s armed forces and ISI are rogue entities because elected government of the people of Pakistan declared them out of their control. In this case we should expect a UN resolution and a mandate to UN Security Council to deal with these rogue entities. What may come afterwards for Pakistan’s armed forces, ISI and for the people of Pakistan is not difficult to predict. So there are only two choices for armed forces and ISI of Pakistan
1) Submit themselves under elected government
2) Takeover the government
The second choice will not bring armed forces closer to the people of pakistan and it will be defeated easily by the enemies.
Well said, I wish if you could have given them only one choice that is the point 1
Establishment plays a vital role in running every country of the world. Even if we look at the American govt, all the long term and strategic national interest are safeguarded by the establishment. Obama criticzed the Bush war in Iraq and afghanistan the most during his election compaign, but continued with the same defence minister after winning the election. But in Pakistan, one cant be considered democratic without abusing and blaming the Armed Forces. The politicians in our country always drag the country to the edge of complete disaster and invite the militry coup themselves. I strongly believe that every organ of the country should run under the elected govt, but unfortunately in a country like Pakistan(where the votes are sold @ 500 rupees, where a fake degree holder is re-elected by the voters, where a sitting federal minister(MODP) declares corruption his right in an on air programme, where there were 140 million bogus votes in the voting lists, where NRO is considered a great deal) this should not happen.
Strange. Whose follies r following,
1. we lost Bengal!
2. economy is in worst condition!
3. who killed 3 PMs
4. True democracy for how long, only 4 yrs Zaib,
5. every Military dictator ruled more than 10 Y and what left at end, Bengal, Talban, Balochistan. Strange.
6. Provincial Autonomy, who is stopping it?? Y. Army.
If u r still not satisfied.
Today’s news, CJP suggested election date of March 23rd 2012, where this comes from? have current government completed it constitutionally mandated term? or CJP is part of conspiracy against an elected government? and working on a pre-set time frame?
In addion to Ishtiaq Ahmed’s comments:
Pakistan has been ruled by military for most of its life, the era was 90’s was also an indirect rule of military as the current one. If Pakistan is in bad situation and then it due ti military’s rule, therefore, it has been proven that military is unable to lead the country, we should stop believing in this myth. Let’s compare Pakistan with India to better understand what is the real difference is between democratic system and rule by military. Military always take shelter under the paradigm of “security”, Is Pakistan more secure today than it was in say 1958?
We also need to understand the effect of “independent but partial” judiciary on our system. One can see that this judiciary has not let current government work, it created hyped up problems for government one after the other. Members of Judiciary taking pride in to be accountable to people? what about constitution, if judiciary ahs such thoughts then who will deliver the Justice? An ex chief justice of high court wants defends a lunatic murderer out of compassion?
O’ Allah have mercy on Pakistan.
military in most of the poor countries never let democratic institutions flourished for obvious reasons. They rule behind the scene and pull the strings at their will. We are no exception. We are being ruled by the military directly and indirectly since our independence and Ministry of defense confession that Military or ISI in Pakistan were never subservient to the civilian authority is no news for us. Why we don’t say this in public is another story. At least hat off to Gilani who dared to say it publicly and questioned why was Bin Laden living at Abbotabad for so long a period.
Sir ,mr gilanis words are those of a true democrats and of course PPP has the will and power to fight for democratic values but at present media army political parties all are bent upon to bring the system down they are most likely to succeed as such an onslaught is difficult to withstand
This time round again it will be through the high offices of supreeme court as has happened inthe past
There is no question as to whether the military should be reporting the government or not but it all should be in the favour of our nation and making such remarks publically does not address any issue but only provokes further question by the rest of the world for our unity within. Its our own matter and we should address with positive mind frame and an action plan. Not by petty politics.
It is time that Pakistan Army understands that it is subservient to the people of Pakistan. I love and respect the Army but I love the people of Pakistan and their freedom more than the army. Enough is enough, army has to start acting like a department of government that they are. I could care less about PPP or Gilani but I am happy that he stood up and delivered the message to Army, ISI and whoever who thinks they rule the people. Enough already.
It is really a misfortune for Pakistan that army can decide what is best for a country. In other words they are to prove that sword is mighter than pen. In spite of many errors, I feel Zardari must be a courageous man to have returned back.Gilani has correctly said how OSAMA has got permission to be in Pakistan for six yearswithout visa?
The Prime Minister talks about saving an “elected” government? Do we really have a stable and fair electoral process in place to give some sense of credibility to this argument of being “elected”? And should I be bothered if some institution is not ready to be answerable to the government?
I will be extremely bothered about the Army not answerable to the government only if I had a real representation in the Parliment. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Kudos to PM Gilani.
1. Military and intel agencies must be subservient & accountable to the civilian control. Pakistan has been ruined by general’
s politics and we all know that.
2. I believe PM’s speech shuld keep Kiyani and Pasha at Bay. It however remains to be seen how they respond to it publicly.
3. PM’s remarks should strenthen political instituitions in the country.
Years from now, when Gilani is no longer PM, he would reflect and be proud of those glorious moments.
nation should support democracy.
Gilani just opened a Pandora box, a bold attempt , will Imran khan and others follow him thats the key and I think this phase will pass too, Army has a tight grip and will wriggle out .
No one is above law and constitution, the accountability should be for all. But why not PM took strict actions against security officials when May 2 happened? immidiate resignation of security officials and direct inquiry was proper action. Now Babar Awan is saying that there should be a Kargil commission, why didn’t government realized it before. PM is in same position as Nawaz (then PM) was in New York after Kargil. Let’s hope politician show maturity this time, to stregthen democracy and political system.
Agreed
Pakistan has no future without military submitting itself to the civilian control and totally de-politicising itself. Pakistan has lost much too much through military coups and dictatorships. It will neither see stability nor prosperity until it finds equilibrium with itself. Unless the democracy is allowed space and time, the institutions of this country will never know their limits of power and jurisdiction. The price of all this will be paid, as has been the case since 1958, by the people of Pakistan.
Yes, agree with Ishtiaq Ahmed that military should remain depoliticized, but it is this very civilian govt that has tried to politicize our military. It requires lot of thinking as to why, as claimed/ announced by the PM, the salaries were doubled when a big portion of masses is living below the poverty line. It is obvious that the purpose of this salary raise is / was to ensure that the military remains pleased with this govt and refrains from interference which in turn would give the govt a free hand to indulge in mega corruption. Moreover, how can the PM’s claim regarding all institutions being under its control be accepted when his own defence minister submitted to the court that the govt has only administrative control over military. Apart from this above one more thing : According to latest news the US govt spokesman has offered compensation to the families of troops killed in NATO attack. Question : Why no such offer ever made for the families of hundreds of civilians killed in drone attacks ? And why is it that neither our govt nor military ever asked the US for compensation for the innocents killed in drone attacks ? The families of troops do deserve to be compensated by the US for sure but it is also a fact that our govt or military itself must have paid something to the bereaved families of troops while the innocent civilians don’t get any thing from any one.
How come the widows and orphans of innocent civilians are not considered as humans and thus not considered for any compensation from any one ?
When a gun is placed to your head, you give your wallet away.