Last few weeks have seen the Pakistan Army receiving a deleterious flak of criticism from ‘friends and foes’ alike. Critics should realise that Pakistan is in a middle of a hybrid war which has taken a heavy toll on countries in the neighborhood. Hybrid war comes without formal declarations by the governments and is based on strategic chaos generated through implosions of fault lines.

Pakistan’s fault lines are many, from interprovincial disharmony to sectarian divides and from gap between haves and have-nots to Civil Military Relations (CMR).There is a new emerging fault line that we discussed in one of our published articles, the increasing gap and hostility between the liberals and conservatives, to some extent represented by rich and poor in same order.

How fault line wars are played by powers that be, please look at the gory pictures and videos being released from Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Ukraine and Afghanistan. Most of these countries were peaceful states with reasonable stability and governance; today these countries are cauldrons of human tragedy and chaos.

The CMR debate has now become barbershop gossip, not realising how it impacts the soldier and officers fighting on the frontlines. It is highlighted the anti-Army charade and sinister media campaign against the pillars of our strength have started affecting the minds of our soldiers and their commanders.

An old SMS received from frontlines is being reproduced here for airing the views of soldiers and officers fighting on the frontlines, “You may criticise me and Pak Army for everything that has gone wrong in this country, but please don’t abuse my mother, who sent me to fight for the cause of this beautiful land we call Pakistan, who sent me to face the bullets on my chest and not on my back, who sent me to remain awake the whole night so that you can sleep without fear, who sent me to bear the brunt of bone chilling and freezing cold so that you can criticise me and my commanders in your cushy drawing rooms over a cup of hot coffee or a bucket full of ice cream, who sent me to keep the star and crescent fluttering on the rugged mountains of FATA and Kashmir so that you could sing the songs of Aman ki Asha with Indian tricolor adoring your TV screens, she sent me to watch my comrades lay their lives and satiate the Pakland with pure red blood so that you could celebrate your son’s graduation from an American university over a cup of pure red wine, she sent me to receive my coffin wrapped in the Green Flag so that you could stash your Swizz accounts with millions of dollars”.

Pakistan is passing through a challenging time with opportunities knocking at our door. On one hand, new vistas of economic development are opening up through the transcontinental strategic venture of the One Belt One Road initiative by China (Pakistan is one of the biggest stake holders in this initiative); on the other hand we have foreign powers meddling in Pakistan through sponsored surrogates.

A Russian expert on Pakistan, Andrew Korybko in an article titled ‘Pakistan’s Response to Hybrid War on CPEC’ published on Feb17 in Regional Rapport states, “This major contextual difference is attributable to the redefined geostrategic significance of South Asia across the past couple of years. The CPEC has become the driver of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) global vision of New Silk Road connectivity and the poster project for the emerging Multipolar World Order, thus making Pakistan the “Zipper of Pan-Eurasian Integration” at the “Convergence of Civilisations”. He goes on to highlight challenges facing Pakistan: “The US and its unipolar allies such as India have a completely different conception for how the future should look, and are dead-set opposed to CPEC for the simple reason that it would undermine their hegemonic ambitions. Instead of joining the project and contributing to a win-win solution for all of Eurasia, Washington and New Delhi have decided to sabotage CPEC out of the pursuit of their own subjectively defined self-interests.”

It may be appreciated that Pakistan and her Defence Forces are fighting hidden enemies and fifth columnists; our citizens, defence institutions and installations have been attacked, and the Pak Army, along with other LEAs, has borne the brunt of this war and continues to do so.

The war seems to be leading to its logical end; however the challenges to Pakistan as stated by Korybko will persist and have to be tackled with dexterity and cool mind.

Taking help from few excerpts from our previous published articles we would conclude that our senior military commanders and soldiers in the middle of this hybrid war need unflinching and unwavering support. Imagine the mental state of Churchill, Montgomery and Eisenhower and the allied soldiers in World War II, if they were criticised every day from 1939 to the turn of tide in 1944, surely the allies would have crumbled before the might of Adolf Hitler.

The British and American leadership and the media did not ask for probes on every failure on part of their commanders. If you look at the list of reverses suffered by the allied commanders between 1939 and 1944, you may be amazed at the patience and perseverance of their governments and people.

Churchill called this period of the Battle of Britain as ‘Their Finest Hour’ and the entire British nation stood like a rock behind their military.

Whereas we firmly believe that Pakistan Defence forces and ISI are passing through their ‘Finest Hour’ (you may disagree with us), we would request all and sundry, including media critics, to read the SMS message from the soldiers and officers fighting on our frontlines and giving lives for this wonderful country.

They should spare the defenders of Pakistan for the time being, and let history decide if they found their finest hour in this long war - a war where foes attack you from all sides and ‘friends’ gnaw at your roots, laugh at every move you make and blast your defenders in every talk show and opinion piece.

Just to remind the our readers about success rate of Radd ul Fassad in the last few months, Karachi continues to improve, TTP is tearing apart at the seams, Indian proxies has been pushed backed on our western front, Kashmir freedom struggle is touching new heights and confidence in security environment in Pakistan is being witnessed daily by gun salutes from Pakistan Stock Exchange as well as positive comments from international financial institutions about health of Pakistan’s economy.