ISLAMABAD – Dismissing what he called ‘misinterpretations’ regarding the‘Bajwa Doctrine’, the DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor clarified at apress conference Wednesday last (March 28, 2018) that if there was a ‘BajwaDoctrine’ per se, it was related to security concerns.
But he did not dwell in detail on what actually is meant by ‘BajwaDoctrine’. Surely it could not have meant more of the same, that iscontinuing the war against militancy. In that case it would have beennothing more than a continuation of the post 2007 policy.
As it is being tossed around since US President Donald Trump’s tweet earlythis year which lashedout at Pakistan for being an unreliable ally it ispossible that the ‘Bajwa Doctrine’ is our Chief of Army Staff’swell-thought out response to the tweet and to the punishing actions thatWashington took subsequently against Islamabad.
This assumption seems to hold if one were to go through a mid-Februaryarticle by Kamal Alam, a Visiting Fellow at Royal United Services Institute(RUSI), an highbrow UK think tank.
Titled* ‘Bajwa Doctrine: The Pakistani Military Has Done More thanEnough’*, the article asserts that ‘Bajwa Doctrine’ is in fact our COAS’vision for the future US-Pakistani military cooperation in the age ofPresident Trump.
“From their perspective, Pakistan has done more than enough to secureneighbouring Afghanistan, and is not intimidated by the threat of USfunding cuts,” assesses Alam.
According to Alam, the message from the military is quite clear — USequipment is no longer the only option for Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan isactively buying hardware and producing more with China
The allegations contained in Trump’s tweet come as no surprise; this hasbeen a common theme in Washington for the last decade, namely Pakistaniduplicity in the War on Terror. However, since the Trump administrationtook office it is making good on the sticks that the Obama administrationhad threatened but never quite delivered.
Alam says the main difference this time around is that the Pakistanis arebiting back.
“Pakistan is now adamant that the time for American threats and directivesis over.” “Gone are the days of timidity and scurrying to please theAmericans.”
This sweeping change in Pakistan’s approach to US threats, Alam says isspelled out in detail in what he calls ‘Bajwa Doctrine’, and ‘it suggeststhat the Pakistan Army should not do more, but rather the world must domore’.
According to Alam the Pakistani military is far more confident today thanit was when the US threatened then President Pervez Musharraf to bombPakistan into the Stone Age if it did not comply with their demands.
The Army, he says, is now battle-hardened after 17 years of war on itswestern frontier and regular skirmishes on its eastern border.
According to Alam the Pakistan COAS General Bajwa has made it clear bysaying it is now the word’s task to do more for Pakistan — it has doneenough.
The world, Alam points out, in the shape of China, Russia, Turkey and Iran,have all come to Pakistan’s defence as the US loses influence in Islamabad.
“Pakistan is now adamant that the time for American threats and directivesis over.”
In the opinion of Alam the Pakistani military is fully prepared to face anycuts in US military aid, as well the potential threat of cross borderincursions by American forces, and feels that its global recognition andreputation of its counterterrorism efforts is very different to what it wasin 2001.
Days after Trump announced the freezing of aid, Alam recalls Pakistanannounced it would trade in the Chinese yuan.
Alam opines that as 2018 begins it is the US that needs Pakistan and notthe other way around.
US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis has already said that he is in touchwith the Pakistani military, as without them the US forces cannot movetheir equipment or survive in landlocked Afghanistan.
According to Alam Trump’s tweet has made Pakistan realise it has been wrongto trust the US for seven decades.
In the weeks following Trump’s tweet it has become evident that it has hadlittle impact on Pakistan’s credibility in the international fight againstterror. If anything it is the US who is scurrying around to please Pakistan.
Both Secretary Mattis and the commander of US Central Command GeneralJoseph Votel have downplayed the media hype surrounding Trump and Pakistan.Votel, who has been a regular visitor to Pakistan, is at pains to say thatthe Pakistani military has done more than its share in the War on Terror.Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells as well has paid a couple ofvisits to Islamabad since the Trump tweet.
General Bajwa, has also made it clear that American money is not needed —it is respect they desire.
Alam points out that while there has been a downward trajectory of US aidto Pakistan, the Trump factor coupled with the threat of aid cuts seems tobe a flash in the pan.
Pakistan has lived for more than a decade under US military sanctions sincethe 1985 Pressler Amendment, which made military and economic aid to thecounty conditional on an annual presidential determination that Pakistandid not have a nuclear weapon. In 1990, President George H W Bush was thefirst to withhold this determination. It was during these years from 1990to 2001 that Pakistan developed its own military capability in conjunctionwith China. Similarly Turkey and Russia have stepped in to assist Pakistanwith procurements of military helicopters — another key element of USmilitary aid to Pakistan.
According to Alam the message from the military is quite clear — USequipment is no longer the only option for Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan isactively buying hardware and producing more with China.
Alam concludes: “The Pakistani military leadership’s message is clear, thatthe Army has restored Pakistan’s stability. Afghanistan’s stability is theresponsibility of the Afghan government and US forces. In fact, the USstill completely relies on Pakistani assistance for logistics and completeusage of airspace for its forces. The future, as far as the Pakistan Armyis concerned, belongs to them.”
BY: M Ziauddin. *The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. Heserved as the Executive Editor of Express Tribune until 2014*