Ashish Shukla

Pakistan Army Ashish Shukla

Pakistan Army is the most organised, powerful and influential institution in the country. It proclaims to protect not only the territorial frontiers of the state but the very ideology of the nation as well. The institution, through various means and mechanisms, controls Grand National Narrative (GNN) in Pakistan and strongly resists any attempt on part of other stakeholders to introduce changes having potential to weaken its hold in the system. It has fairly penetrated almost all sectors of Pakistani society and institutions of any significance including mass-media and academia. Its linkages with various indigenous extremist/terrorist groups is well-known and documented. Despite a severe blowback at home in the form of deadly terror strikes, the army refuses to discontinue its policy of using terror outfits as strategic assets to achieve foreign policy objectives. Against this background, the study traces the evolution of army, from scratch to the most potent force, and critically analyses the institution and its role in the country.