THE constitutional role of the military has been under active mass-scale discussion these days, and rightly so. The role of the military, as defined in Article 245 of the Constitution, is “to defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war” and to “act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so”.

Though this role appears to be very neatly outlined and simple to execute, it is actually fraught with dangers of overstepping the domain as the boundaries are not clearly defined.

To put it another way, the boundaries are dependent on who defines them and how. This surely should not be the case.

In today’s world, war is not limited to the actual theatre of war alone. It seeps down to civil society and adopts the form of an asymmetric exercise; the so-called fifth generation warfare, which includes cyber warfare, misinformation through media, subversion of people’s minds and propaganda under the garb of ideology.

Viewing from this angle, the intelligence agencies have to perform counter-intelligence operations and detect enemy activity in any form in different facets of civil society.

Taking advantage of this role, the army has been venturing into larger society with the help and support of politicians with an axe to grind and with the intent of having a commercial empire in place.

The navy and the air force have been sticking to their specific mandates, and have in fact been cast aside by the big brother.

There is certainly need for an objective review of the role of the armed forces collectively and as individual entities. New dimensions have opened up in the domain of air defence, electronic warfare, robotics and drone technology that need attention and recognition.

A committee was formed in the past under the chairmanship of Zufiqar Ali Khan, the air chief marshal at the time, to study the role and task of intelligence agencies. It was swiftly dumped and never saw the light of the day.

In view of all these modern developments and past experiences, the role and task of the armed forces must be debated in national parliament, and, if required, new laws should be framed so that we may have a better future.

Air-Cdre (retd) Khayyam Durrani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2023