It is the duty of all officials of the government, civil and military, to execute policies laid down by the government. It is not for them to publicly support government policies as accepting such behavior on their part would give them the right to also publicly air their differences with the government. And such behavior would surely not lead to good governance. Any deviation from this norm, therefore, should be nipped in the bud. In a recent such case, allowing this liberty put the military at odds with the publicly expressed views of the opposition parties. Personally, I feel the present government's anti-terrorism policy would create greater problems for the country in a not too distant future. Making pro-government 'Lashkars' in the Frontier region may turn out to be a major blunder of this government. The existing military operations are hurting the Pashtuns, be they in Pakistan or Afghanistan. These operations are creating worse sentiment than the one that was created by military action against Bengalis in East Pakistan in 1971. One had thought our leaders would learn a lesson from history and not repeat mistakes of the past. One sincerely hopes that the government would rethink and revise its policy in NWFP and handle the situation like a civilized state that takes the way of compassion and negotiation to bring about a settlement with its aggrieved people. -VICE ADMIRAL (Retd) IQBAL F. QUADIR, Karachi, via e-mail, October 14.