Open Letter to General Kiyani

Open Letter to General Kiyani-Don’t Let Your Soldiers Down

Dear Gen. Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani,
Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan Army
GHQ Rawalpindi,

As the Commander of the Armies of the Republic, we invite you to take a trip to 2024 in our time machine. Imagine, if after 15 years , an ex-officer of some intelligence agency and the ex-Corps Commander Peshawar appeared on the TV screen claiming whatever was done in Swat in 2009 was nothing but a drama and there was no entity called the “Taliban” in Swat, how will the families of Shuhada/martyrs of Pakistan Army (Jawans and junior NCOs) feel.? What will be the impact of such a revelation on the morale of soldiers and officers? What will they think of their officers and generals when they realize that their blood was used as a bargaining chip by the GHQ?

And what about the nation’s confidence in their Army as the guarantor of our territorial integrity after another Imtiaz Billa spills the beans on Operation Rah-e-Rast? What if the videos of terrorists killed and their hideouts, training camps of suicide bombers, were revealed in 2024 as a brilliant psy-ops action?

This is exactly what some ex-army officers are doing now by appearing on our TV screens and claiming whatever was presented in official ISPR briefings in 1994 was a concocted drama, along with all the footage, pictures and evidence presented to the media.

Let us for a moment think about the army officers and soldiers who are being told the same stories about the Taliban and are being asked to risk their lives to save the county. Who will guarantee our soldiers today that they are not being used like a disposable napkin by their superior officers who only want a plot or two in DHA Islamabad?

We believe what is happening today is a huge conspiracy to demoralize the real core of the Pakistan army: its soldiers and junior officers. These ex-army and ex-intelligence officers who have confessed to massive corruption and meddling in politics must be tried in military courts and there should be an open inquiry so that the whole, complete, unadulterated truth can come out. That is the only way the wounds being inflicted on the national psyche, the Republic and its armed forces can be healed.

The ISPR needs to come out of its bunker and make its stance clear about the issue of Karachi Operations and guarantee the nation that the current campaign against anti-Pakistan Taliban is not some similar cock and bull story to save the skin of a dictator whose destructive reign not only destroyed the judiciary, damaged democracy but has also delivered a death blow to the prestige of our army.

Pakistan Army must now realize that their image and reputation can ONLY be restored by standing WITH the people of Pakistan and not by protecting an ex-dictator from his chosen fate: The noose of Article 6.