0
In its centrefold spread last Sunday, the Toronto Star published a piece by one of its foreign correspondents, Rick Westhead, currently reporting from Pakistan. I have quoted Mr Westhead in my earlier columns as well since his reports on Pakistan – being the authentic western view from ‘on the ground’ – make good reference material in a critical comment. For the past few months he has reported on diverse issues, from Pakistan’s economic woes post-flood and the cricket World Cup match with Canada to the Washington funding for Rafi Peer Theatre and the Raymond Davis case. And most of these have been investigative follow-ups on current news items also widely reported elsewhere.
However, last Sunday’s report was definitely an eye opener for me, touching upon an issue that I at least have never seen reported in the Pakistani papers. It talked about “Pakistan’s wounded and forgotten soldiers.” Perhaps it is the media’s general antipathy for the armed forces or maybe the deeply secretive disposition of the Pakistani armed forces, either way, the report and the facts detailed by Westhead have not been the subject of news reports, at least to the best of my knowledge. And even if they have been, this feature deserves a review.
Writing about how “Pakistan has lost more soldiers in the fight against Taliban than all its western allies combined,” the story includes tales told by soldiers themselves who have lost their limbs – brutally cut off while on the field – and their lives lived in continuous pain. The statistics alone are astounding. The death toll after ‘the war on terror’ stands thus – Canada, the US and other coalition forces collectively: 2,058 soldiers dead; Pakistan military: 2,348 soldiers dead.
After hearing and reading so much in the western media about how Pakistan has not done enough to reduce the terrorism within, Westhead’s report comes out as a reprieve, avenging Pakistan with extremely tragic references. When put in the perspective of the Canadian soldiers and their troubles, our jawans and officers perceptibly rise in esteem with their tales of courage.
Interviewing some of the patients at the Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFIRM) in Rawalpindi, he writes, “While Canadian soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and other injuries have complained of being abandoned by their government, consider that the average Pakistani soldier earns about Rs20,000 ($231) a month. One patient at the institute suffering from brain trauma after having been shot in the head receives a monthly disability benefit of Rs1,600 ($18).”
With at least 6,710 Pakistani soldiers having been injured in battle, Westhead notes one of the officers’ complaints about no politician ever having visited this medical facility. They tell him, “The minister of defence, the interior minister or the health minister? None of them has ever bothered to come.”
Speaking of both Canadians and Pakistanis as fellow soldiers in a war forced upon them, Westhead writes about the horrible threat of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and anti-personal mines which have claimed the lives and limbs of soldiers fighting in Swat and South and North Waziristan.
The gut wrenching tales as narrated by these men of courage are difficult to read. Ali (29) narrates his story of three amputations within two years – first above his ankle, the second 20cm below the knee and a third a further 10cm above that because of various infections. The main reason for so many painful procedures seems to be the messed up procedures performed and even now his stump pains because, “there is too much loose skin below the sawed-off end of his femur, skin that is easily irritated by his artificial leg” and he may need another operation.
Hussain (34) gives another such account talking about how he was injured in South Waziristan in November 2009 when he stepped over a landmine near his outpost.
The Pakistan Army is not a much loved entity in the media, which is sceptical of its every move and many have written it off as an ‘above the law’ body which rides rough shod over every democratic system. And it is with good reason that it is so criticised. Their previous acts of high-handed takeover of civilian institutions and their subsequent militarisation, has besmirched the military’s reputation and these men in boots are perceived as potential dictators.
But as always there are two sides to a story. There are those idealistic individuals still found within the army’s fold who enlist with the thought of ‘serving their country’ for which they will lay down their life if need be. And whether we like them or not, it is usually these maligned soldiers who are brought in to clean the debris after a disaster – natural or man-made – as we saw after the floods in 2010.
Perhaps then, it probably isn’t too much for Lt Muhammad Ali to ask when he says to Rick Westhead, “We need to show the people of our country the price we are paying in this war on terror.”
