I was brought up in a family, where my paternal Grandfather was in the Pakistan Navy and my maternal great grandfather in the Pakistan Army. I always had crazy ambitions for joining the armed forces. Since my childhood my grandfather used to choose me out of all my brothers and cousins when asked upon who did he think would join the army in future.
I had the perfect physique and an aspiration for it. The motivational words of my grandfather used to drive me further towards loving the Armed Forces. My knees didn't knock while running, I didn't have a flat foot. My height was optimum. I was a very enthusiastic kid when it came to physical excercise, be it playing football regularly or jumping from 8 stairs at once. Now that I am talking about my childhood, I just remembered, I had a team comprising of my younger brothers and cousins. I was the leader of this team and used to instruct my team members on new physical excercises everyday.
The Television shows on 6th September(Defence Day) used to fascinate me. I used to impatiently wait for the Independence Day(14th August). Always the loudest while reciting the National Anthem in the School Assembly. Writing this post, forced me to search my dusty old cupboard where all the old albums are. Look what I found in it.
This is my picture in which I cosplayed as a Navy Personnel. As I mentioned, I have in love with the army. One might ask where did it all go wrong? How did it all end? Why do I unlike the armed forces now? Well, I grew up....
Living in the biggest city of a country has it's pros and cons respectively. One of the biggest pros is that a city like this has a lot of diversity. You'll find people of every status, creed, religion and casts. One of the biggest cons of a city like this is it's diversity as well. You'll face a lot of discrimination, injustice and hate based on your power and status.
The first interaction that I had with the armed forces was when I was traveling with my dad on a bike, riding peacefully, we were stopped by a vehicle with tainted glasses and gunned men in it. My dad was fortunately not beaten and was only threatened. What was his fault? He didn't move his bike for the armed forces' vehicle to pass. We were stopped and shown our place. We realised the value of our life in front of these people.
We have always been taught that Pakistan won the 1965 and the 1971 war against India. It was literally fed to our tiny little brains. Ofcourse it was all a lie, portrayed to improve the image of our armed forces. If you dig deeper into the history, you'll realise it was all a lie. We didn't win any of these wars, infact the army was humiliated in the 1971 war. This made me question my love for the Armed Forces. Not because we didn't win any wars, but because of the lies constantly fed to the children.
The infrastructure of my city is not up to the notch. Everytime heavy rain falls, we are literally at the mercy of God. But that's the whole city except for the Cantonment areas. The Cantonment areas belong to the Army, Navy and the Air force. One might ask how is it possible that the whole city is in ashes while the Cantonment areas are perfectly fine? Well, that's because the highest budget of Pakistan's economy is alloted to the armed forces.
They're given the most secure places of every city, the most elite lifestyle and the sense of superiority, which you can find in ALL the armed Personnels.
The armed forces Personnels are not allowed to have a private business but there's no check and balance. Almost all of the officers have their own Property business. Witnessing all these things while being a helpless citizen of this country really made me question my love for the army. Slowly and gradually it died...
I'm not sure, I'd ever join the Armed Forces but I were to join, it'd probably be the Army. Also, if there's anyone who's reading this post, and wants to bring a change in the forces, I'd state a few points that I believe are the need of the hour.
The first thing that I'd change about the Armed forces is their close relationship with the politics. I know there will be people who'll come up with a justification that if the politicians are incompatible of governing a country peacefully and successfully, then the army has to interfere. I, always, present to them a very simple explanation, ie;
Imagine there's a house in which 5 brothers live together. They also have a watchman to look after their house and provide them security, no matter what. These brothers cannot reach to a single conclusion in any matter and are always quarrelling with each other. Seeing this situation, the watchman barges into the house with his weapon, throws the brothers out of the house and takes the ownership of the house. When the watchman is questioned on why did he do that, he replies that the brothers were all incompatible for this house, that's why I had to takeover.
A question arises here. Did the watchman do the right thing? Was it his duty to throw the bothers out and take the ownership for himself or was his duty to protect them at all costs, no matter what? Was he stationed outside the house to provide security or was he give the authority that he can barge inside the house on the basis of his weapon?
By what right does the watchman take over the house? Answer this question and we will talk further. That's the first thing that, I'd change in the Armed Forces. It's close association with a nation's politics. The perfect example is of the failed Military Coup in Turkey, in which the citizens literally spread themselves in front of tanks just to overturn the military coup.
I'd want to bring accountability in the Armed Forces. I'd like to ask questions about the assets owned by all the senior officers in the Armed forces. I'd want to raise questions on the thousands of acres of lands possessed by the Generals and the Brigadiers. How do they manage to hoard up lands with only a handful of salaries?
I'd want to change how the lower ranked soldiers are treated. They aren't even provided basic provisions for their services. For months and years these soldiers are deployed into hostile territories with no guarantee of any help or any perks for their families. These soldiers are sacrificed like sacrificial lambs. There's no one to mourn for them except for their mothers who are provided with their sons' bloodstained uniforms.
Lastly, I'd want to freely excercise freedom of speech in the armed forces. Not being scared of getting killed or abducted just because you chose to speak the truth against the high ranked officers. I consider myself a rebel. Not a day passes by where my elder brother doesn't scold me for speaking against the brutality of our armed forces. He tried to reason with me that there's no point in speaking against them, and I somewhat agree with him. We're going through a strange period of time or maybe it has been like this since the very beginning. You can't speak against the armed forces without being fearful of being abducted by them. There are countless people I personally know who had been abducted for this very reason. I had a Facebook group of more than 400,000 members which was suspended after the Investigation Agency of Pakistan shut it down. I have recieved threats from the armed forces for speaking the truth against them. As I aging, I am realizing that there's really no point in speaking against them. The only thing that will happen would be my mom mourning over my dead body.
Since, this contest asked us to give our opinions about the changes that we'd like to see in the armed forces, I, once again spoke up on this matter but trust me, honestly, there's no hope left. I mean, what can you expect from an army, whose General was enjoying an Independence Day Celebration in the United Kingdom, while the whole country was drowning in the floods....
WHO IS HUZAIFANAVEED?
huzaifanaveed hails from Pakistan, who is an aspiring dentist, studying in one of the top notch universities of Pakistan, Jinnah Sindh Medical University.
he loves interacting with new people, making new friends and traveling the world, but most importantly he loves to make a change in this world through his actions and his words. He's an entrepreneur and a philanthropist who's been actively working with different Charitable Organizations in Pakistan.
His goal on Hive is similar, ie, to make a difference. He's here to mark his presence and he'll do it through his words. So lets be a part of his journey and show him support through comments, upvotes and reblogs.