PAK GENERALS ON DAMAGE CONTROL SPREE

Following in the footsteps of the Pakistan Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Khalid Shameem Wyne, has also embarked on a tour involving meeting the officer cadre to take stock of the situation following the US military's covert strike on Osama Bin Laden in Abottabad.

Addressing the student officers of the Command and Staff College in Quetta, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, a four star General, said that the defense forces of Pakistan are well equipped, highly motivated and fully capable to all dimensions of conventional and unconventional threat posed to security and integrity of the country (as reported by Inter Services Public Relations or ISPR). Given the fact that what happened in Abottabad has caused much shame and consternation among Army officers, this is a typical PR statement which does not have any bearing on what the General might have actually said during his meeting with the student officers.

The important thing to note is that the senior leadership of the Pak Army is worried enough to undertake such meetings with junior officers. The last time this happened was in the aftermath of the humiliating defeat suffered by the Pakistan Army in the 1971 war. The then COAS had also undertaken such addresses and was booed in one of them. Does this signify a crises in leadership as far as the top echelon of the Pak Army is concerned? The image of the COAS may well have taken a beating. And this may result him in not getting another extension this year-end if he does not handle his Corps Commanders with care. He managed to get an extension last time because the US was supporting him. This time around with the Osama fiasco, this might not happen.