7th June 2014
For those who support Mir Shakil, GEO and Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi and the likes, here's my viewpoint.
As children when someone was loosing at Ludo, they would deliberately and cunningly up end the board and the gotis so it was difficult to put the pieces back together, restart the game and get back to the real issues.
Mir Shakil of GEO has up ended the board so the real issue is lost. Standing up for GEO is not about Freedom of speech, as he and supporters of GEO and Hamid Mir would love to make it out. Or about the heavy handedness of the "agencies". The organisation, and really its Mir Shakil ur Rehman, if one were to seek cause, who has played a terribly dangerous game under this garb of freedom and have caused immense harm to Pakistan.
Mir Shakil has let loose on an unsuspecting ignorant public the likes of Hamid Mir, Ansar Abassi, Saleem Saafi, Trojan horses for the Taliban and Najam Sethi, Trojan for NS. Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi and Saleem Saafi may have every right to make their choices of promoting the TTP and turning Pakistan into Salafi Caliphate,
But if GEO allows them their forum to insidiously brainwash people then i have a serious problem. And if it means their covert and active support of such enemies of the Country then I have a problem. If it means selective misreporting as on Balochistan, then I have a problem. If it means causing the deaths of people ( Col. Imam and Commander Khalil) then I have a problem. The media in Pakistan which is supporting GEO is subjective and stinks of "Asabiyah" and in this case completely wrong.
I have always stood up for the underdog, For those who dont my background ( not very impressive) . Resigned my commission as a Captain against Zia's Martial law in 1981, walked out of the hall when he started speaking as a Chief Guest in an APNS ( All Pakistan Newspaper Society) function in Karachi, where he was fawned over by all these media luminaries.Refused to work undercover for my former comrades in arms. Actively worked with Air Marshal Asghar Khan and TI against Zias Martial Law. Wrote a wide ranging very biting commentary on Gen Musharraf rule in 2007. More about how he lost perhaps the best opportunity someone had to turn this country around and how his heavy handedness in his last days was causing more harm then good.
So I am no apologist for military adventurism. But GEO, which means Mir Shakil and his very suspect objectives, the likes of 5th columnists like Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi et al who are enemies of the state must be stopped. This is because Mir Shakil will not stop his tirade against the Pakistan Army and the ISI. Why he is doing it is an enigma. But he will not stop. And Nawaz Sharif will also let him do so, for it serves his purpose of a weak Pakistan Army and a weak ISI.
So If we dont stop this now, time will prove me right and woe betide that day.