Pakistan Army Chief acknowledges role of Pak army in Kargil war
Islamabad, Sep 7: In a rare public acknowledgement by a serving Pakistani army chief, General Asim Munir has mentioned the involvement of Pakistan army in the Kargil war as he listed the 1999 conflict with India among the major wars fought with the eastern neighbour.
Munir, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) was speaking during the Defence and Martyrs Day event at Rawalpindi on Friday.
The 1999 Kargil war ended with India recapturing the border posts occupied by Pakistani infiltrators. India celebrates the victory as Vijay Diwas on July 26.
In his speech, General Munir highlighted the role of the army in defending the motherland with the support of the people of Pakistan and also touched upon various conflicts with India, including the Kargil war.
“Indeed Pakistani nation is a courageous and bold nation, which understands best the importance of independence and how to protect it at any price. Whether the Pak-India wars of 1948, 1965, 1971 and Kargil or Siachen conflict, thousands of martyrs gave sacrifices for the security and honour of the country,” Munir said.
Pakistan had initially distanced itself from the conflict by saying that only private “freedom fighters” were involved in it. However, soon the scale of fighting revealed that the armies of two countries were fighting against each other.
The 2006 book ‘In The Line Of Fire’ written by then Pervez Musharraf, who was the army chief during the Kargil war, clearly acknowledged the Pakistan Army's role.
Musharraf had sent in the Northern Light Infantry men in the Kargil theatre of war. Pakistan awarded Captain Karnal Sher Khan of 27th Battalion, Sind Regiment and Havaldar Lalak Jan of Northern Light Infantry with the highest gallantry award called Nishan-e-Haider after the Kargil war was over.
Munir, in his address, also said the country would “not allow political differences to turn into hatred.”
He asserted that the strong relations between the army and the public would act as the foundation to defeat any enemy trying to create rifts between the two.
“The relation between the armed forces and the nation is of heart,” he said, adding that the nation always strengthened the army in all fields including, “rescue works in the events of natural disasters, foreign hostilities or war against terrorism.”
Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif was also present at the ceremony, which was attended by the army’s top brass, senior military and governmental officials, and families of soldiers, among others.
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Stringent laws alone do not make just society, need to change our mindsets: CJI Chandrachud
New Delhi, Sep 16: There is no dearth of legal provisions to protect the interest of women in private and public spaces but law alone cannot make a just system, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Monday, stressing that society also has to shed its "patriarchal social attitude".
Speaking at News18 Network's She Shakti event, CJI Chandrachud said, "We must foster institutional and individual ability to look beyond the male default".
"There is no dearth of substantive and procedural legal provisions targeted towards protecting the interests of women in private and public situations. But good laws including the stringent laws alone do not make for a just society.
"Above all we need to change our mindsets. The mindsets must move from making concessions for women to recognising their entitlement to lead lives based on freedom and equality. We must zealously guard against apparently protective laws infringing women's liberties and choices," the CJI said.
Addressing the event, he said, "Talking about women's rights is not a women's thing. Some of the great life lessons I have learnt from my female colleagues."
"I believe equal participation of women is important for a better society. Before we adopted the Constitution of India, the Indian Women's Charter of Life was drafted by Hansa Mehta, who was feminist," he added.
The CJI said issues of safety, equality of opportunity, dignity and empowerment are not subsets that ought to be discussed in silos. "Every one of us in the country has to be a part of this conversation."
"Equal participation of women in governance, policy and leadership roles is positively linked to better development outcomes. When we either create or fail to address barriers in the path of women, we are jeopardizing our quest for a better society. Indifference is no longer an option," the CJI said.
He said there has been an increasing intake of women Civil Judges through exams -- 58 per cent of the total candidates in Rajasthan in 2023; 66 per cent of the appointments in Delhi in 2023, 54 per cent of the appointments in Uttar Pradesh in 2022 and 72 per cent of the total number of judicial officers appointed in Kerala are women.
Justice Chandrachud said the labour force participation of women is 37 per cent while the contribution of women to the GDP is 18 per cent.
"We have not exactly met the pre-independence hopes about women's economic participation. A part of the reason is the continued gendered allocation of domestic labour. Even as women are entering the workforce, they are never divorced from the domestic realm.
"They must simultaneously juggle domestic and care-giving chores. They are doubly burdened - almost as a penalty for transgressing the domestic threshold," he said.
The CJI said gender equality is a function not only of statistics but a function of lived realities of women.
"This also applies to assimilate traditionally excluded groups such as persons with disabilities, transgender and queer persons. Our expectations from these groups are heavily based on the stereotypical understanding of their supposedly innate tendencies.
"We fail to appreciate them as individuals. As women break rank and enter professional workspaces traditionally dominated by men, they are expected to act like men. Ironically enough, they are also tacitly expected to act like women, act-their-part, lest they upset the code of womanly conduct," he said.
He said that for a large part of their lives, institutions have operated in an information deficit about the objective abilities of women.
"Women traditionally were not a priority in institutional design. Even as they break into elusive and exclusionary places, women are met with institutional apathy at best, and hostility at worst. The result is high attrition rates and professional stagnation in entry level and mid-level roles for women," Justice Chandrachud said.
