Shaukat Qadir

Shaukat Qadiris an independent Risk and Security Analyst who works generally inSouth Asia,particularly inPakistanandAfghanistan.He started his career as a pilot in thePakistan Air Force(PAF) and then moved to thePakistan Army.He retired in 1998 as aBrigadier.In 1999, he became the founder and vice-president, and later president, of the semi-independent think tankIslamabad Policy Research Institute(IPRI). In 2001, he sought early retirement due to disagreements with the military government. Since then, he has been visiting faculty at theFatima Jinnah Women University,writing in various national and international newspapers and journals, and working as an independent Security and Risk Assessment consultant. He is also currently a Senior Analyst atWikistrat.

Background

Shaukat began his military career as a Flight Cadet in the PAF in 1965. He joined thePakistan Military Academyin 1968. In 1970, he was commissioned in the 6th Battalion, Frontier Force Regiment, 6 FF (Infantry).

He returned from his six-month sojourn inEast Pakistan(now calledBangladesh) weeks before the surrender at the end of the1971 war.He saw action during theBalochistan insurgencyin the 1970s. Over the years, he has commanded three brigades and served on the staff of a brigade, a division, and a corps; he has also been on the faculty of the infantry school,Command and Staff College,and the War Wing at theNational Defence University, Islamabad.In 1998, he sought and obtained early retirement from the Army.

In 1999, he founded theIslamabad Policy Research Institute(IPRI) and became the vice-president. He finally requested retirement again from the IPRI in 2001. Since then, he has been afree-lance journalist,an author with a weekly column, a member of visiting faculty at theFatima Jinnah Women's University,and an invited speaker and author at various national and international conferences.

Author and columnist

Shaukat has written in various newspapers, magazines, journals and books over the last decade,both nationally and internationally.He has a weekly column in thePakistanDaily Timesand also writes regularly forThe National.In the past, he has written for theFar Eastern Economic Review,RUSI – Royal United Services Institute (UK),PILDAT – Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency,Rediff.com (India),Dawn (Pakistan),andThe Round Table Journal,among others.

Articles and political views

Pakistan Army

Shaukat has been vocal about his criticism (and, to some extent, his praise) about the government of Pakistan, and also of other countries.His analysis of theKargil War(carried by RUSI) is highly cited and generally viewed as an objective analysis by both sides of the divide.

In general, he is a politic and a democrat, who believes that the military should remain subordinate to the elected leaders, and should have no political role. He stated as much in 1990 to the then Army Chief, while he was a student at theNational Defence College(now University), and also after retirement, in various forums.

"Apart from the fact that such avoidance of responsibility by the political leadership is tantamount to a tacit acceptance of a continued political role of the military, no military can, or should, possibly be expected to cater for all political considerations."

"Ours is a country with a history of military coups and, even when the army was not running the country, its political power was an ominous presence. Ayub Khan started well, till he led us into an unnecessary war in 1965, which we were fortunate to end in a stalemate. Yahya Khan didn't initiate a war but he created conditions for India to dismember us. Zia-ul Haq gave birth to religious extremism and the drug/Kalashnikov culture. Pervez Musharraf went farther than all the rest: he permitted terrorists to flower, in instances like Lal Masjid, even nurtured them until there was no option left but to use force which caused the death of hundreds of children. Democratic army chiefs have been a rarity."

Abstract philosophy

His more abstract political and philosophical views are scattered in various articles, and seem inspired from Jean Jacque Rousseau's 'A Social Contract', which he often quotes in his articles.He believes that while sovereignty lies with the people, it is transferred to their elected representatives by the people themselves. Consequently, elected representatives are bound by the democratic system to deliver 'good governance,' in the widest sense of the term.

"There is one inalienable right of the citizens of society i.e. liberty (in all its forms) and therefore, the state exists for but one purpose alone i.e. to ensure the individual and collective rights of its citizens. To this end, the state is the only organisation authorised the use of force; but that too solely in attempting to achieve this end that it exists for."

External links

• Shaukat Qadir Home Page
• Shaukat Qadir's biography on Wikistrat