I HAD said a few weeks ago that after the Great Abbottabad Fiasco, every day will bring more twaddle from a destabilised and out-of-its-depth establishment which, whilst it knows it has no clothes, will go on showing fake bravado.

Well, whilst I am getting tired of saying how right I was, let me say it again. Witness the Mehran assault and the shameful way in which the navy has handled the fallout of this disgrace.

From plain untruths to hiding behind the flimsiest of excuses, or shall we say the skimpiest of fig leaves, the navy has made a laughing stock of itself. Adm Noman Bashir, chief of naval staff, appeared to indicate that the attack was not a security lapse.

(A naval spokesman later said his remarks were quoted out of context and inaccurately.) Really now? So then, is it the case that the attack came from within the navy’s ranks? If so, what is the state of the navy’s command and control systems?

We are also told that the breach was not a failure of the navy’s security systems because the terrorists scaled the wall where the surveillance cameras had a blind spot made worse because of the darkness. Well, why was the blind spot there in the first place, darkness or no darkness? I ask you! And are this unfortunate country’s defences in the hands of armed forces trained to operate only during daylight hours; or, shall we say nine to five? Say, like Askari Bank? I mean how preposterous, how absurd, could this get?

This is not all, infuriatingly. If serving tin hats who have brought the services to their present sorry pass subject us to extreme absurdity, so do their predecessors, the retired tin hats of the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen’s Association (PESA) who test our patience and insult our intelligence on the Internet day in and day out.

These people are banging away for new national elections, citing Abbottabad and now Mehran as reasons, heaping abuse and blame upon democracy and elected leaders and shamelessly ignoring the ineptness, nay culpability of some officers of the armed forces, their own successors.

It boggles the senses to see them blatantly and with much effrontery go on repeating lie after lie, refusing to accept what the whole world knows to be true, i.e. the army and the ISI have arrogated to themselves the running of this country’s foreign and security policies. And that, therefore, upon them lies the major blame of whatever they are trying to parcel on to the ‘bloody civilians’.

When they run out of arguments, which is often, these former tin hats descend to accusing those that confront them of being the agents of an Indian/ Israeli/ American-Hindu/ Jewish/ Christian conspiracy against the country, and in my case and that of some of my friends who have long campaigned for an army that does not bake and sell pastries and steal canal water, of being army haters. Which, incidentally, is exactly the line taken by the bright young things who are known as the ISI’s not-so-undercover propagandists.

The long and short of it is that the catastrophes that have befallen our armed forces are, as always, the result of the aforementioned Hindu/ Jewish/ Christian conspiracies against the Citadel of Islam and its ‘Pak’ (pure) forces. And more water off a duck’s back. There is not a hair out of place atop the carefully groomed heads of the generals and the air chief marshals and the admirals. It is as if the recent kicks in the teeth that all the three services have received were victories for Pakistan.

Which reminds me. Why do all the services chiefs don the gongs and sashes etcetera of Nishan-i-Imtiaz (military) the moment they get promoted? Is it an honour bestowed on them by the state to commemorate their accession to the highest rank in their service?

If so, why is the honour of Nishan-i-Imtiaz (civil) not conferred upon other public servants who reach the pinnacle of their services? For example, judges of the supreme and high courts, federal secretaries and inspectors general of police to name a few?

But, friends, nothing will change until the commanders of the Deep State are cut down to size. Which will not happen until the defence and ISI budgets are scrutinised and approved by parliament. Which will not happen until the two largest political forces, the PPP and PML-N, come together in a firm compact. Are you listening M/S Zardari and Sharif?

Which reminds me. Kudos to Mr Nawaz Sharif for saying that peace with India is a vital and key imperative for Pakistan. This is exactly what President Zardari has already said and puts these two leaders on the same page on this most critical matter.

Only these leaders of the largest political parties can keep the Deep State’s ‘India-centricity’ in check; only together will the political leadership be enabled to face down the brooding tin hats whose raison d’être is hostility towards India.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk