The other side of the story

• Posted by Kinza Farhat October 19, 2018 - Filed in Personal - 823 views

  This article is not just another informative article highlighting problems with their potential solutions. some people might think that it’s irrelevant, but I feel people need to see the other side of the picture as well!  

  Army is very dominant in Pakistan and this statement does not come as a surprise, I understand that army has made decisions that were not acceptable to Pakistanis like, imposing dictatorship four times (1958, 1969, 1978 and 1999), displacing governments Pakistanis elected another three times (1990, 1993, 1996) and hanging the prime minister. Some of the statements that we hear so often are, “why hold our politicians responsible for the nation’s problems when Pakistan’s budget, its foreign policy, its security policy and its Baluchistan policy are run by the army? Army owns 12% of the land illegally, they give their officers free house and plots and what not, every facility for them and civilians suffer” 

  79 per cent of Pakistanis think their army ‘has a good influence on the country’.  I am writing this to prove that the other 21 per cent are whole. I just want to put a point out there because “freedom of speech” right? 

  Being an army brat, I have seen so much that no one generally knows and might never know, can't decide if I was fortunate enough or unfortunate!  

  Joining army is a choice and the person who joins it knows the repercussion and he or she is well aware of what they are signing up for! Every human life is equally important and everyone wants to live, but IF someone is willing ready to sacrifice their life for our future then the least, we can do is to appreciate it! But we prefer to keep a check on the benefits their families get. What is wrong If a shaheed’s mother is getting a 10 marla house? Army is not taking your house and giving it to them. 

  Officers above brigadiers are very privileged and they live an extraordinary life and they get noticed, they get in the public eye and people start assuming that this is the lifestyle of every officer in the army, but what they fail to understand is, higher ranks only make 10 to 20 percent of the total army population, they rest of the 80 percent have a hand to mouth approach. They live a very ordinary life, just like a normal person. A portion of their pay is cut to for the house that’s been given to them after retirement, just that’s been given is for free. It is only a misconception that it’s free. They pay for all of it.  

  So many other private sector jobs are pensionable as well, no one says anything about it. I believe that an officer and their families deserve what they get because only the officer knows what he’s been through, through all these years and only their families know how it hard it is to live without a husband, father, son! Imagine your father is gone for war and every morning after waking up you pray that he’s alive, imagine now seeing him for 2 whole years straight, not knowing if he’s okay or not, alive or dead. You're almost homeless without him. There is so much that stays untold and hence people start assuming.  

  The point of telling you all this is, if hurts you a lot when someone disrespects the army when you know how your father did not care about his life for the sake of this nation and how your childhood was spent without your father because he was gone to save the nation.  

   Think before saying anything bad, every organization have good and bad people but never overlook their sacrifices, if you can not appreciate then kindly don’t disrespect as well.