Anjum Niaz: Circumscribed or circumcised

What Anjum does not allude to is every single ex Fauji alive who has been part of the government - any government - and in any capacity should be court-martialled. The real officer and gentleman of the likes of Ali Kuli would stand proud ~~~t

The army has its hands full with fighting the extremists. The sponsors of madmen from madressahs who daily behead their victims too are suddenly agog with a change in the air. They were present in big numbers at the "Defence of Pakistan" seminar. Maulana Samiul Haq (the cleric of Akora Khattak who once harboured the Taliban) and Qazi Hussain Ahmad who has never once denounced the Taliban savagery and Medieval Ages mentality spoke in favour of Shariat. "But they will not support me in my call for jihad against the Americans," Hamid Gul laments. He wonders why we don't talk about India having 26 intelligence detachments in Afghanistan. "It's building bases across the Oxus at Kulyar Pamir which means that their aircraft can reach Islamabad within 20 minutes." Go ask the mice in the government!

Still, we have a unique example of disparate minds, common goals: Imagine the fiery human rights activist Tahira Abdullah winning a shouting match with Maulana Samiul Haq on Shariat; imagine Khwaja Asif of the PML-N making an impassioned apology for aiding and abetting dictator Ziaul Haq thereby shaming the unrepentant generals who refuse to say sorry; imagine pacifist Rasool Bux Palijo snubbing Hamid Gul for his jihadi talk; imagine Nusrat Ali Shah shutting up the ex-generals for their role in destroying democracy and demanding that the role of the faujis be circumscribed.