| It was a favourite ploy of the late General Habibullah Khan Khattak, who acquired General Motors' local business in the 1960s and became Pakistan's first General Industrialist. After any business presentation by his senior executives in Ghandhara Industries, he would ask them to provide a contrary perspective by arguing against it. Zealous proponents of many a hair-brained scheme found this a sobering, chastising experience. |
| I wonder what he, at one time Ayub Khan's righthand fist, would have made of the current Kargil escapade. Would he, as a military man have applauded it as a briliant tactical manouevre that caught the Indians napping during the subcontinent's siesta time? Would he have seen it as a strategic jab at the jugular of India's military supply line through the mountains of Leh? Would he have calculated, as surely someonme must have done before authorising such a dangerous enterprise, what would be the cost/benefit ratio, if any, and if so to whom? |
| Whoever conceived the Kargil expedition had the instincts of the ill-fated mountaineer George Mallory who climbed up Mount Everest - because it was there. Like Mallory, he saw the way up clearly enough. But as Edmund Hilary, who later in 19523 successfully conquered Everest, replied knowingly when someone suggested that Mallory might have also reached the peak during his tragic expedition in 1924, reaching the peak is not what matters. Climbing down without losing one's life (as Mallory did) is more important. [EXTRACT] |
Publsihed in DAWN 12 July 1999, and reprinted in THE BARK OF A PEN (2001). |
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