WASHINGTON, April 4: Pakistan is carefully trying to reduce religious influence in the army while retaining the Islamic identity of its soldiers, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
In a report from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, the newspaper observes that the army is trying to maintain a balance between the traditions it inherited from the British and the Muslim faith of its soldiers.
Yet, the Post says, the emphasis on religion is hard to miss and is the legacy of a conscious strategy of Islamization of the military that "began in the late 1970s and has included active support for Muslim extremist groups, including the Taliban movement in Afghanistan".
Now, as President Pervez Musharraf seeks to steer Pakistan on a more moderate course, rolling back that legacy has emerged as one of his most challenging - and most urgent - priorities, the report says.
It quotes senior military officers as saying religion is a "motivational force rather than a battle cry against the West" and notes that two recent exhortations by Al Qaeda lieutenant Ayman Al Zawahiri for the Pakistani army to rise up against Gen Musharraf had no apparent impact.
Despite the emphasis on moderation, Gen Musharraf and the army maintain strong ties with Muslim hard-liners, the report says, adding that the army helped engineer a strong showing by an alliance of six religious parties in 2002 elections.
According to the Post, Gen Musharraf "still faces a potential threat from extremists in the military angered by his close cooperation with the United States in the war on terrorism and his pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the conflict with India over Kashmir".
Commandant PMA Maj-Gen Hamid Rab Nawaz tells the Post: "There was a visible leaning toward religion, but over time it has faded out". "Campus life does not appear to be overly saturated with religion. Cadets spend free time surfing the Internet or - since the installation of cable television in lounge areas last year - watching movies," the report concludes.
