Pakistan Defence Day 2019 – ‘Till the last bullet’

Pakistan Defence Day 2019 – ‘Till the last bullet’

– by S Roman Ahsan

06^th September arrives – It is Pak Defence Day again. Before discussing some points I would like to mention here that my father has been working as a designer for over 50 years in a firm that manufactures rubber defence equipment for Armed forces of Pakistan. Here is the link of blog-post I wrote about him in 2013: http://together-we-rise.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-father-unsung-hero.html

The purpose of the above reference is to make it clear that if you think you love Pak Army then I have more reasons since childhood to do so. Criticizing something about Pak Army officers definitely does not mean I hate our defence forces, absolutely not! However, the criticism has to be fair and we should beware of enemy-funded propaganda against Pak Armed forces by organized groups.

DG Asif Ghafoor held a press conference on 4^th September, 2019 about Kashmir situation. Many things he said were meaningful however he failed when he brought up references from Islamic history / our beloved Prophet’s (pbuh) life. He said that Muslims also did treaty of Hudaibiya (Sulah Hudaibiya) but few years later Makkah was conquered.

Holding a press conference on atrocities committed in Kashmir and then giving reference of a peace treaty does not sound very noble, sorry to say and rather most inappropriate. The current situation in Kashmir is most dissimilar to the circumstances that led our Prophet (pbuh) to sign treaty of Hudaibiya with the leaders of Makkah. At that time, 1400 years ago, there was not an oppressed group or citizens waiting to be rescued as in Kashmir today, at this particular juncture.

The reference of treaty of Hudaibiya has been given so often by our media analysts also after 9/11. But we have not really heard from them how Muhammad Bin Qasim (ra) arrived in India to liberate the oppressed citizens from the evil ruler Raja Dahir. And how the first Caliph of Islam Hadhrat Abu Bakr (ra) announced ‘Jihad Bis Saif’ (armed combat in Islam) against the false prophet Musailma Kazzaab and his companions thereby terminating all of them.

We could give so many references from Islamic history and from the lives of earlier Prophets (peace be upon them all) in favour of armed combat as opposed to peace treaties that we would exhaust ourselves reading about them. One of my favorites is the Biblical story ‘David and Goliath’ which is also narrated in Holy Qur’an as ‘Dawood and Jaloot’ (Prophet Dawood pbuh). The lesson to conclude from this historical story is that we should not panic due to military might of the enemies and they can be defeated with special blessing and help of our Omnipotent Creator, Almighty Allah.

All of us despise the possibility of a nuclear strike arising from a military combat between Pakistan and India. Our Armed forces still understand the situation better than us regarding when to strike and when to abstain. Just say that you know the situation better and avoid the use of redundant references from Islamic history in these matters. By doing so you do not come across as credible and not an institution we can trust fully when our brothers and sisters are suffering immensely not so far away while you are not taking practical steps to help them out.

The fact is we do not really rely on Allah. We are relying on UN which by the way caters to the interests of evil imperial powers. And we are relying on OIC and other countries. But we have not put our faith in Allah and that is why we are scared on worldly grounds!

The slogan ‘Till the last bullet, till the last breath, till the last soldier - - -‘ sounds like the lyrics of an American song!