Counter narrative groups must be utilized for handling any anti Pakistan and anti-military trend on social media.

No harmful trend should be allowed to be transmitted/spread negative images under any external agenda.

I appeal to Patriot Pakistani people to come out In favor of the Pakistan army and conduct massive rallies to build national morale and shake the morale of miscreants. All political parties must arrange such rallies. I am hoping for political harmony in Pakistan because this is the only way forward along with agreement on a minimum agenda and that must involve a greater consensus on improving Pakistan’s economy–Hafiz Anees

This article is quite significant under the current ongoing chaotic political situation in Pakistan and also in terms of region specifically in the light of the Russia-Ukraine war since this war is impacting many countries and regions in terms of geo-economics. The Russia-Ukraine war is a lesson in many ways. If Ukraine would be a nuclear power, this war never would have been waged in the first place.

Another factor is keeping the nation’s armed forces strong and having no reliance on foreign military aid in times of need, this is the domain in which Ukraine failed by relying on western promises of support and guarantees for sovereignty. No one would come to support in difficult times rather that nation will be vulnerable if the armed forces of that nation are not strong enough to meet unavoidable challenges like foreign invasion and 5th generation proxies.

This Russia-Ukraine war is a huge eye-opener for Pakistan to be learned and thanks to Almighty that Pakistan has a strong deterrence and a strong military establishment. Now a new form of 5th-generation warfare was initiated after many lessons learned from enemies of Pakistan like how successfully the Pakistan army countered TTP proxies in SWAT and FATA, nullifying Indian proxies in Baluchistan and Karachi. This failure of the enemies model plan against Pakistan to weaken it or disintegrate by 2015 gave a new form of approach, that is, targeting Pakistan’s strong military establishment and trying to shake its unity of command.

There is a complete lecture on the Pakistan army’s unity of command from a British think tank “Anatol Lieven” who lectured in Sydney with an Australian institute 8 or 9 years ago that suggested if the Pakistan army as an institution would fall, the country will disintegrate pretty quickly. He described that process in his book “Pakistan: A Hard Country”. This is now the prime target from external forces to create such famous Icons, Populus political forces that could challenge the unity of Command of the Pakistan army. Of course, this task has to be done diligently and utilizing the popular sentiments of common people.

The key point of 5th generation warfare is to utilize the flow of popular sentiments that could potentially be bought well within various sections of the population. For example, the 80s era of the MQM movement utilized popular sentiments of the quota system, urban and ruler resources division, etc. Famous SWAT TTP insurgency used Shariah law as the basis of their struggle and FATA-based TTP used Pakistan’s involvement in the war on terror and drone attacks collateral damage as an excuse. Currently, social media is being used to target the Pakistan army’s unity of command which cannot be tolerated at any cost. The collaborators of such a campaign are mostly the young generation that knows nothing about the history of the country and related provincial sensitivities. The main purpose of this type of campaign is to weaken the country’s soft image, infrastructure, and economy. Unfortunately, many social media trolls from hostile nations are helping this vicious campaign.

The hostile nations and their agencies had failed badly in the past decade waging a proxy war on Pakistan under TTP and BLA shadow, but the Pakistan army was able to handle such a huge challenge with its might and unity of command. Normally, to achieve such an objective, the hostile powers use many means and maneuvers to execute their vicious plans like igniting any religious or ethnic sentiments usually mishandled by incompetent government officials, conflicting media reporting to create chaos, elaborate negative imaging to harm the economy, widen the socio-ethnic differences between country’s population and currently political anarchy under corruption slogan is being used and this seems a new type of model is being tried.

In order to meet enormous challenges coming from 5^th Generation social media proxies, as I had elaborated earlier, we must adopt certain measures that could minimize the harmful impact of such a lethal social media campaign against the unity of command.

A sharp awareness campaign must be initiated to let the Pakistani nation know about the lethalness of 5th Generation warfare. This is the warfare that had been lately used for destroying Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen along with some pieces taken from the Yugoslavian model. In this warfare, a multi-pronged approach is used to destabilize a country with help from various forms of media, igniting regional and internal disputes, utilizing internal overt and covert proxies like BLA, TTP, religious sectarian groups, and any sort of Populus movement that targets country’s unity of command. Counter and keep a close eye on such media anchors and social media outfits who ignite the situation by frequently switching their versions. Please note that the media groups and personals are one of the key tools being used in such type of warfare. We must use Counter narrative groups for handling any anti-Pakistan and anti-military trends on social media. No harmful trend should be allowed to be transmitted/spread a negative image under any external agenda. The intelligence networks need more resources (state-of-the-art technology tools) and rigorous training keeping in mind various internal and external fronts. It includes all levels of resources starting from additional resources for defense agencies to civil law enforcement agencies, so we need to develop counter capabilities of civil law enforcement agencies quickly for handling any type of Riots and aggressive IBOs must be continued on a long-term basis. IBOs are proving to be extremely effective and must be extended to all other domains wherever is necessary.

Police are not yet designed to handle hybrid warfare, so it is necessary to set up ANTI ROITS AND CYBER WARFARE training for the overall police structure in Pakistan on how to handle this lethal warfare. ISPR can play a vital role in this domain. Moreover, retired army personnel and/or bubble assignments from the army can be extended to the police for establishing such arrangements to create an organized culture in the police structure.

The people of Pakistan must be vigilant against any such elements that ignite any situation. Government and ISPR should set up a strategy for how to activate counter-social media groups against 5th Gen proxies. It seems that organized trends are being developed to show a negative image of the country that impacts badly on multiple areas and dimensions. These organized groups are already set by hostile agencies as part of hybrid warfare through social media propaganda and the only way to counter them is to establish/set up equal responses via organized social media groups that can elaborate Pakistan’s rationale narrative.

 Concluding the article, I must elaborate that Any Populus movement that targets Pakistan’s army, and its unity of command must be dealt with an iron hand, a strong counter-narrative with strict measures along with political maneuvering. This is a new type of approach adopted by hostile nations when their plans failed in SWAT and FATA and the Pakistan army successfully repelled their proxies.

Pakistan is the only country that fought foreign-imposed lethal hybrid warfare in the past couple of decades resulting in tremendous monetary and physical losses yet emerged as victorious while many countries were destroyed by such warfare tactics. This only could be possible due to unshaken bondage between the people of Pakistan and our security establishment and intelligence institutions. This bondage between our military establishment and the People of Pakistan Must not be allowed to be sabotaged by social media trolls and by any political movement under any slogan. Political slogans are created to encash political sentiments, but our young generation is unaware of such tactics. Also, the younger generation may be misguided, and they can be used as trolls through a well-planned agenda, so the best way is to track & mold down the detracted SM trolls.

Finally repeating once again, Whoever, tries to instigate the disturbance amongst rank n files of the Pakistan army and our security establishment, MUST be dealt with an iron hand and with due treatment. Pakistan army is a very organized and established institution that has the huge responsibility of safeguarding the motherland, so all patriots must stand firm behind the Pakistan military establishment.

I appeal to Patriot Pakistani people to come out In favor of the Pakistan army and conduct massive rallies to build national morale and shake the morale of miscreants. All political parties must arrange such rallies.

I am hoping for political harmony in Pakistan because this is the only way forward along with agreement on a minimum agenda and that must involve a greater consensus on improving Pakistan’s economy.

By Hafiz Anees – March 15, 2023 in The Islamabad Telegraph https://theislamabadtelegraph.com/2023/03/if-pakistan-army-as-an-institution-would-fall-the-country-will-disintegrate-pretty-quickly/