Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Wednesday expressed concern over media debate vis-à-vis Army and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) saying "the role of national institutions should not be criticised." He said this in an informal chat with senior journalists at a farewell reception for outgoing Chief of Air Staff Rao Qamar Suleman at the Prime Minister's House.
He said most of the TV channels do not favour soldiers defending the national borders at below 20 Celsius. Theses men in uniform need motivation instead of debate to discourage them, the CoAS added. He did not single out any TV channel or talk show but said that debates on some channels are not contributing positively towards promotion of national institutions.
While giving examples of other countries like Israel, he said they never uttered a word against their intelligence agencies, the way ISI is being openly discussed in Pakistan. "Even in countries like the United States, the role of agencies is not discussed publicly," he said.
The CoAS was of the view that everybody makes mistakes but it did not mean that the moral of the institutions is undermined. "It takes very long to build institutions," he added. About the Balochistan issue, he was of the view that there was no military operation going on in the province and as discussed there is no plan to build new cantonments in Balochistan.
He said the cantonment at Sui has already been made a military college and we have set up a medical college in Quetta which is working. The only thing, the army did is settlement of dispute among different tribes to accelerate the pace of development, he said. About the missing persons, the CoAS said that a report revealed there were only 47 missing persons in Pakistan as compared to 350 in India and 11,000 in Sri Lanka. He, however did not comments much on the issue saying that the mater is in court.
The CoAS observed that the parliament is supreme and the issue of Nato supplies and relations with the United States would be resolved in accordance with the decision of the parliament. About war on terror, Kayani said he had advised the US military officials not to visit Pakistan before the joint session of the parliament which would draw fresh guidelines for relations with the United States and Pakistan's role in war on terror. However, he confirmed that US Centcom commander General James Mattis would visit Pakistan by the end of March.
Answering a question about Mehran Bank scam, General Kayani said that it had happened 20 years ago and discussing it now was fighting the history. He said "We should learn from the past, live in present with a focus on future." The Army Chief categorically denied reports that the army or the ISI is supporting Imran Khan. He said if there is any proof of this, it should be made public.