Zia 2.0

He is everywhere in Pakistan Visiting injured soldiers in hospitals meeting with corps commanders and being photographed doing it inaugurating civilian projects praying with jihadis and wearing turbans over fatigues You would be forgiven if you think that elections are on in Pakistan and the Army Chief is campaigning for votesGeneral Raheel Sharif is due to retire next year but calls are being made now to grant him an extension Former Army Chief General Musharraf who gave himself a fiveyear extension and then installed himself as president has said that good work would go waste if Gen Sharif retiresGeneral Raheel Sharif is the chief martial law administrator in Pakistan today without needing to amend the constitution keep it in abeyance or launch a military coup He is all in all not just in GHQ Rawalpindi but also in the entire country PicAFPGeneral Raheel Sharif is the chief martial law administrator in Pakistan today without needing to amend the constitution keep it in abeyance or launch a military coup He is all in all not just in GHQ Rawalpindi but also in the entire country General Zia ul Haq who deposed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and imposed martial law and strict Islamic way of life in Pakistan used combat helicopters to kill hundreds of protesters in Nawabshah in 1978 General Sharif has cracked down on Baloch Sindhis Mohajirs and various ethnic groups under the garb of terror cleansing operations The Rangers and Army have been given sweeping powers even the use of drones The world watches silently just as it did during the reign of General ZiaIn 1983 under Islamic law Zina a woman was publically lashed In 2015 a famous human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud who spoke vociferously against injustice and discrimination was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on her way home after hosting a seminarIn October 1979 after martial law was imposed in Pakistan people were administered 25 lashes each for taking part in political activities Now there is no apparent martial law but if political activists do not subscribe to the unwritten laws of the Army then a message is in the mail Leave the country shut up and shape upTop journalists in Pakistan former diplomats and retired officials say that the degree of selfcensorship among journalists harks back to the era of General Zia ul Haq Politicians have been reduced to lilylivered lackeys of the chief They fear for their lives and dare not cross the line Systematically the COAS chief of Army Staff has been destroying the MQM and PPP two main opposition parties in Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and his PMLN have had their powers completely curtailed despite having won a landslide majority Foreign policy and defence is out of the Prime Ministerrsquos ambit now The gossamer line between the civilian leadership and the army has been shredded yet againRelations with India are being charted out by the COAS Sartaj Aziz the Prime Ministerrsquos foreign policy advisor who doubles up as the National Security advisor is reportedly carrying with him to New York a dossier to hand over to the UN Secretary General which supposedly contains lsquoproofrsquo of Indiarsquos lsquoterror activitiesrsquo in Pakistan Since he could not hand it over to Ajit Doval Indiarsquos national security advisor after the cancellation of talks Aziz now has been directed to hand it over to the UNSGThere is also pressure by the nonstate influencers in Pakistan read jihadi leaders like Hafiz Saeed to get Pakistanrsquos ambassadors to brief the respective governments in their countries about so called Indian encouragement to terror groups waging war against the Pakistani governmentThere is even talk of creating a Kashmir desk in major Pakistani consulates around the world to drum up support for lsquofreedom for the people of Kashmirrsquo If the proposal goes through the consulates would be tasked to hold conferences on Kashmir and invite the participation of the Hurriyat and other Kashmiri separatists who the Pakistanis call Kashmiri freedom fightersIndia would have to chart out a counterpropaganda war against this both diplomatically and via the media There is also the option to totally ignore Pakistan Go ahead and form an economic confederate of some sorts with other South Asian countries and let Pakistan pretty much keep to its decadesold agendaAll this then brings us back to Raheel Sharif He has emerged as the undisputed Chief of Pakistan Raheel Sharif has walked into General Ziarsquos shoes and is legitimising his sway over Pakistan using the tried and tested antiIndia formula Zia 20 is bad news for India and very bad news for the people of PakistanSmita Prakash is Editor News at Asian News International You can follow her on Twitter smitaprakash