KARACHI: The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in collaboration with the Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences organised on its city campus a lecture on Saturday evening by renowned scholar Dr Tariq Rahman on the topic of ‘Pakistan’s Wars: An Alternative History’ as part of Irtiqa’s Distinguished Hamza Alavi Lecture series.

The lecture was presided over by IBA executive director S Akbar Zaidi.

Dr Rahman, who had flown in from Lahore to deliver the talk, mentioned at the outset that his lecture was based on his book Wars of Pakistan. He said we have had several wars, starting from 1947-48 up until the Kargil war. “There are certain questions whether these wars have certain patterns, whether most of them were initiated by Pakistan, and above all, does Pakistan take inordinate risks when it begins these wars.”

He argued that the inordinate risks amount to gambling, and the most important question is whether the decision-makers behind these wars is a clique or the state or bureaucracy etc. “Nevertheless the decisions made about war and peace are made in a covert manner, in a clandestine manner, in extralegal ways without consulting other stakeholders, without going through procedures that the state permits.”

Ideology influences decision-making, says Dr Tariq Rahman

The scholar was of the view that if there had not been any risks in waging wars, the US would not have lost in Vietnam and Russia would not have been facing resistance from Ukraine, and before that in Afghanistan.

“But when a smaller country with a much weaker economic base fights deliberately a larger country with modern weapons then it puts that country in tremendous danger. That’s a gamble. The other idea that I have discussed in my book is the effects of war in which people are killed, buildings are broken, women are raped and the minds are affected. That is the most obvious. The less obvious things are that people stay in a state of tension. Innocent people are caught up in the situation and treated as spies. And then there are subalterns,” he said.

After these thoughts, Dr Rahman gave an elaborate view on the conflicts involving Pakistan from 1947-48 (Kashmir war) to Kargil, emphasising on the fact that the decisions taken to go to those wars were taken by a group of people and not by the government.

It started from 1948 when the “major decision taken was not by the government of Pakistan but by a clique”. Research suggested before the 1965 war, from 1956 to 1960 four files recommended that we should attack India. With respect to the 1971 war he discussed the West Pakistani narrative, East Pakistani narrative and the Indian narrative presented at the time to engage in the conflict.

Among other things, he refused India’s narrative that it had no intention of attacking Pakistan; it was planning to attack Pakistan months before the war. The 1971 war was followed by the wars in Afghanistan and Kargil, where cliques planned them.

Concluding his arguments, Dr Rahman said, “Ideology influences decision-making. If the strategic culture gives an unreal map, then it translates into wrong decisions. For Pakistani decision-makers, India is a civilisational foe, Hindus are not good fighters, India is a hegemon which should be resisted and Kashmir must be won.”

Earlier, Dr Jaffer Ahmed introduced late Hamza Alavi to the audience, which had packed the IBA hall in quick time. He said Mr Alavi was an eminent Marxist thinker. His eminence had two major reasons: one, he was an extremely well read man; two, he creatively applied to his field the knowledge that he had gained as a voracious reader.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2022