Leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from Chakwal have taken it upon themselves to urge the former chief of Pakistan’s world-known spy agency, the ISI, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed (retd), to join practical politics.

Hameed is known to have a soft spot for the PTI, a leaning which put him at risk of being perceived as safeguarding the party’s interests. The Chakwal influentials made their wishes known at a ceremony in Hameed’s honour at his native village, Latifal.

A video of a moment at the event quite obviously made it to social media. It shows one speaker inviting Hameed to join politics. “Now you should come into politics and serve your area,” Chaudhry Khursheed Baig, the senior vice president of PTI, said in an emotional appeal. The former ISI chief had served his area previously but in his capacity as a military man.

The speaker went on to say that while Hameed had been in service he had secured development funds for the area.

Baig then went on to express the regret that Hameed did not reach the rank of army chief otherwise their area would have benefited from unprecedented development.

More than 300 people had gathered for the luncheon ceremony held at the former spy chief’s farm. Hameed is said to have played an important role in improving the state of his hometown by completing development projects, including gas service, carpeted roads, and resolving local issues.

A history of army men joining politics

Chakwal was not wrong in expressing such a desire. There has been a history of army men from the area joining politics. Take, for example, Majeed Malik, a general who became a MNA in 1990 and then during Nawaz Sharif’s second government in 1997, as a minister.

Then Abdul Qadir Baloch from Balochistan joined the PML-N and became a minister. He had served in the military by commanding the Gujranwala Corps.

Maj Gen Saad Khattak became a diplomat, then went on to form a political party called the Aam Admi Movement in 2021.

Major Tahir Iqbal (retired) served as a PML-N lawmaker in the National Assembly in 2013.

Air Marshal Nur Khan, the former commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Air Force, also hailed from the same district. Khan had an illustrious career as he served as the governor of erstwhile West Pakistan, headed Pakistan International Airlines, and led the boards of cricket and hockey. He was inducted as a cabinet minister of communications, health, labour, and science in former president Yahya Khan’s administration.

Sources said that former armyman Hafiz Masroor was also set to join the PML-N.

Chakwal’s history: A note by Dr Ayesha Siddiqa

After the war of independence carried out by soldiers from the three ritual presidencies, Madras, Bombay and Bengal, the British army shifted its recruitment ground to Northern India. And Chakwal became one of the prominent districts.

A motivational tool developed later to attract men from the region to the army came in the form of land grant, especially to those joining the army. The Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 1901 granted a percentage of agricultural land to those joining the army and created an agricultural class.

Chakwal remains one of the seven or eight major requirement grounds for the Pakistan Army. In fact, given the significance of the area it can be considered the equivalent to the ‘bible belt’ for the US Republicans - or in other words, a major support base.

Maria Rashid’s book “Dying to Serve” highlights the manner in which village after village in this belt dedicate their sons for the military and sacrifice.

Soon after Partition, Chakwal, Gujjar Khan and Jhelum in Punjab and Peshawar and Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emerged as key army recruitment districts. Chakwal is additionally significant because it is also where officers are drawn from. Chakwal is, in fact, part of Potohar, which dominates the officer cadre. The current group of officers, from which even the present one Asim Munir was recruited, mainly comprised Punjabi officers who were predominantly from Potohar.

The army retirees are also from this region. Not surprisingly, in army lingo Chakwal, Jhelum and Gujjar Khan are called the Bermuda Triangle – if you go up against an officer or officers from this area you don’t stand a chance. The question is whether this power works as effectively in politics.

(Side note from desk: Estimates show that more than 400,000 young people from this area out of its total population of 1.5 million are serving in the armed forces.)

Army and politics: the eternal question

The Faiz Hameed village video renewed debate on Aaj News show ‘Faisla Aap ka’ hosted by Asma Shirazi on the army’s role and politics. PPP’s Maula Bux Chandio, Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Shoaib Shaheen, and analyst Raza Rumi joined as panelists.

“If General Faiz wants to enter politics after two years, the Constitution does not prohibit it,” Shaheen said. “It can be a military party too, can’t it? Now the army has become political.”

Instead of meddling in politics in such a way that the serving general dictates to Parliament or the executive, it is better to form a party in the name of a military party, he added.

Chandio said that the army has always played a role in the politics of Pakistan. “They forget about Bhutto Sahib [Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]; his whole house was destroyed.”