These past four years have been stranger than usual. A fauji comes to power under the logic that the civilian government is corrupt, inefficient, and was compromising national interests and security. Rumors had been rife that in the post-Kargil era, an uneasy relationship had developed between the army and Nawaz Sharif. Who ordered the Kargil operation? Was Nawaz Sharif involved in it? Why was the military brass shunning meeting Vajpayee at the Lahore summit?

The questions can be endless. Nawaz Sharif must have had some idea that the Army establishment was against him thus his clandestine replacement of Musharaf by a hand-picked general Ziauddin Butt. However, Musahraf and the Army establishment could never have imagined that world events would bring them to the current state of affairs.

One could say with reasonable certainty that Pakistan’s three most strategic assets were:

1. Nuclear program
2. Kashmir
3. Having ‘Strategic Depth’

Each of these is tied to one another but one can argue the order of importance. One by one, each of the three most strategic assets have been jeopardized under the rule of the Pakistan Armed Forces lead by General Parvez Musharaf.

Strategic Depth is taught in Pakistani schools and universities as an integral part of national policy. The Establishment of Pakistan strongly believes that the country has every right to have this policy in order to overcome the physical disadvantages of the nation’s landmass.

Kashmir is taught as being a territory that should really have belonged to Pakistan but was usurped by the conniving Indians. The enormous human tragedy of the people has been shown on PTV every day for years. Issues like water rights have of late been touted as further reasons for maintaining a belligerent stance on this Himalayan state.

The nuclear program is meant to be the deterrent and the savior of the nation. The tests in the Chaghai Hills were celebrated by all and sundry in the nation. The world saw that despite all the hindrances, Pakistan could defy the globe and enter into the nuclear age. India would never dare to attack the country now!

In each of the above three strategic assets, the Pakistan Army had the final say. Over the past three years, as is bound to happen with all lopsided policies, under the rule of the self-proclaimed defenders of the nation, each of the strategic assets are lost.

The years of hard work done by the ISI to finally have a pro-Pakistan government established in post-Soviet Afghanistan no matter what the cost, was blown to pieces after the events of September 11th. The Pakistan Army capitulated at the first phone call by Colin Powell and whole-heartedly proclaimed that the South Asian nation is on the side of America.

Out went the holy ‘strategic depth’ theory. Musharaf went on air and drew analogies with the ancient treaties like Hudaibiya which were meant to show that a compromise on a ‘lesser’ important issue was necessary to save the more significant issues for Pakistan like Kashmir and the nuclear assets. If this compromise had not been made, the evil eastern neighbor would jump all over the land of the pure.

During Nawaz Sharif’s second stint in office, all efforts were made to make a quick peace with India. The leader was rumored to have personal ambitions in doing business with such a huge market. Even before any significant peace moves were made, the Sharif sugar interests jumped on the peace bandwagon and began to export the commodity across the border via trains sending prices in the local market through the roof. The Sharif government had decided to table a motion in the parliament to give the Northern Areas- which were part of the larger Kashmir region but which Pakistan had quietly separated from Azad Kashmir for various reasons ranging from security and that the locals of these areas were non-Kashmiris. Pakistan had thus far not declared these areas as a fifth province as it would violate the United Nations resolution- the resolution being the sole reason for Pakistan being able to argue on Kashmir on the world stage. It was generally accepted that a Kashmir solution was on the cards. Nawaz Sharif was supporting this and it was being done without any outside instigation or interference.

One can say with assurance that the Pakistan Army could never accept this compromise on Kashmir without allowing the generals to have any say. Especially when Kargil was on the cards. Nawaz Sharif was looked upon as nothing less than a traitor.

Today, in contrast to Sharif, most analysts see the current possibilities of a Kashmir solution under Musharaf as a sell-out in which Pakistan gains nothing other than the approving nods from the larger powers like a parent would nod toward a mischievous child who has been caught with his hands in the cookie jar and so has to quietly bring the hand out empty. Times have changed. The approving nods are more important to the Pakistan Army today then even the ‘peanuts’ offered to General Zia in the seventies and eighties.

Forgotten are the United Nations resolutions. There is no more the talk of plebiscites. No more the urgency to uphold the rights of Kashmiris. Kashmir is no more the integral part of Pakistan!

Finally, in the past few days, the status of the most sacred of Pakistan’s assets has come tumbling down.

‘Over my dead body’, proclaimed one President of Pakistan when asked by the world powers to handover the founder of a bankrupt bank that had helped secure credit for procuring material for the nuclear program.

One ‘national hero’ after another is now being used as a scapegoat and disgraced to cover-up the covert operations that went on with oil-rich nations aspiring to obtain nuclear technology.

Whether one sees Abdul Qadeer Khan as a national hero or not, he succeeded in the task he was anointed to perform. One cannot make the same statement about the Pakistan Army- an organization which was unlikely to have been unaware of whatever it was the nation’s nuclear scientists were selling.

For those who are opposed to the Army rule in the country, one is left in a bind. Should one support the Faujiz while they are going through this constipated angst? Or should one sympathize with them as after all this is our country as well?

However, perhaps there is a silver-lining to all of this. For those who never saw any relevance to these strategic assets, this is good riddance. For those who feel saddened by the turn of events over the past three years, the change gives a chance for re-organizing priorities. National identity and pride cannot be based on such futile assets and policies. Poverty stricken nations do not deserve being held hostage to the whims of policies based on military adventurisms.