The
Peace Treaty & General Kiyani
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd.)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
While eulogising
Lt Gen. Jamshaid Gulzar Kiyani (Retd.), a professor
wrote, “Those who have been close to him
honour him as a man of matchless integrity and
rectitude, a rare breed in a community of Army
stalwarts”.
While I appreciate the learned professor’s
praise for the general, I am hurt by his remarks
“a rare breed in a community of Army stalwarts”.
Dear professor, all army stalwarts – nay,
all army officers – are supposed to be men
of integrity. On our passing out from the Academy
in 1953 our then commandant, Brig. Tarwa, in his
address to us had said, “It takes two years
to produce an officer. But it takes three generations
to make a gentleman. Remember, you were Gentleman
Cadets here and you would be the gentleman officers
as long as you serve”.
Incidentally, a cadet in the PMA is called a GC
– Gentleman Cadet. Lot of emphasis is placed
on the character building of a cadet. In fact,
the most overriding factor in the grant of commission
to a cadet is his standing in the character qualities,
which are rated as absolute qualities. There is
no less honest or more honest, less truthful or
more truthful being. One is either honest or not,
period. If the professor has noted the rare breed
then he must also know the causes of it too. And,
I am sorry to say that he will find himself among
those responsible for it. The fault, if any, lies
with our academic institutions which influence
the conduct of the future stalwarts during their
very early and impressionable age of school-going
period.
In the early 70s my son was studying in class
8th in a cadet college. During vacation he narrated
with childlike innocence the story of how his
class teacher helped the entire class in copying
to show improvement in the result because the
Principal had ‘grounded’ them from
watching TV due to poor performance in a previous
test. A teacher conniving at cheating with the
students and that too in a character-building
institution of some distinction! Shocked as I
was, I wrote to the Principal about the episode
and the ‘character building’ efforts
of the teacher. Instead of appreciating my complaint,
my son became the butt of scorn of the teacher
concerned as well as of the Principal. I felt
that if that was the state of affairs in a cadet
college one could well imagine the plight of other
schools and institutions.
Dear professor, pardon my saying so, but the ‘rare
breed’ that you have so scornfully mentioned
are the product of our very educational institution
where a thing like ‘character building’
is not known to the ‘maimaran-e-quam’
(the nation builders). Don’t blame the rare
breed, look up your own sleeves.
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