Disastrous Mistakes
Random thoughts
By Dr A Q Khan
“To err is human; to forgive divine.” A blunder of devastating consequences was the murder of Genghis Khan’s messengers and Chinese Muslim traders by the Governor of Utrar, brother-in-law of Alauddin Khwarizm Shah. It ultimately resulted in the complete destruction of all the Islamic countries of Central Asia, the murder of more than a million Muslims and the razing of many famous cities to rubble.
In more recent times we see the sons of Shah Jahan fighting for succession to the throne. Dara Shikoh made the mistake of dismounting from his elephant and riding a horse. Not seeing him upon the elephant, his army thought he had been killed, lost hope and gave up the fight. Dara Shikoh was arrested, blinded and brutally murdered by Aurangzeb.
In 1666 Shivaji presented himself in the court of Aurangzeb and requested a 7,000 (Haft Hazari) rupees worth of Jagir. Aurangzeb arrogantly rejected the request and offered him a 5,000 rupees Jagir instead. When Shivaji objected, he was thrown into prison. He managed to escape by hiding under clothes in a bullock cart and later inflicted enormous damage to the Mogul dynasty, defeating the Mogul navy for the first time in 1664. In 1672 the Moguls were openly defeated at the hands of Shivaji, which shook the very foundations of the Mogul dynasty. Aurangzeb’s blunder in not granting a favour to Shiraji led to the weakening and ultimate disintegration of the Mogul Empire. Had he agreed to grant that small favour, the Marhatas would not have found a good leader and would have dispersed.
Napoleon had conquered almost of the whole of Western Europe and had reached as far as Alexandria in Egypt. But in the arrogance of power he made the mistake of attacking Russia. Heavy snowfall and severe winter conditions led not only to his defeat, but also to the destruction of his army, the loss of his armament and ultimately to his defeat by Admiral Nelson at Waterloo. He was exiled to St Helena where he died an ignominious death. Had he used all his resources to attack England rather than Russia, the history of Europe would have been different today.
There is a saying that people don’t learn from history. This was amply illustrated in the case of Hitler. Forgetting Napoleon’s fate, he proceeded to attack Russia, again in winter. He was under the illusion that, with the latest technology and equipment (tanks, tracked vehicles with long-range guns, aircraft and bombs) he could overrun Russia in a matter of weeks and defeat its armed forces. Despite a three-year siege of Leningrad, which caused hundreds of thousands to die in the city, his forces could not defeat Russia and Field Marshal Paulus had to surrender to a Russian major general in his headquarters in a train.
This proved to be the first in a string of defeats leading to the occupation of Berlin and Hitler committing suicide. Had he used all his forces against England instead, history would have been quite different. As the Greek philosopher Euripides said: “Whom God wants to destroy he first makes mad.” Hitler became madly arrogant and ultimately paid for it with his life, his country and the lives of millions of people.
Let us now take a look at our own history. The first major mistake in the history of Pakistan was made by Governor General Khwaja Nazimuddin, when he stepped down to become prime minister after the assassination of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, making the intriguer Ghulam Mohammad governor general in his place. The result was disastrous for Pakistan. Ghulam Mohammad dismissed Khwaja Nazimuudin, dissolved the Constituent Assembly and sowed the seeds for the later disintegration of Pakistan.
Later on, President Iskander Mirza blundered by appointing Ayub Khan as chief martial law administrator. Within weeks Ayub removed Iskander Mirza and banished him to England without a penny. Qudratullah Shahab has written about this in detail in his autobiography Shahab Nama. In London Iskander Mirza worked as a manager in a small hotel and died a dejected person.
In 1962, the war between India and China erupted in Assam. Ayub Khan, under pressure from America, convinced India that it could use all its forces without fear of any action by Pakistan in Kashmir. After the Western countries had armed India with all the latest weapons and technology, Ayub undertook his misadventure against Kashmir in 1965. Thanks only to the intervention of the West, we were saved from losing Kashmir and Lahore.
After Ayub Khan, Gen Yahya Khan took over. Fair and free elections were held, but the results were not accepted. The subsequent army action resulted in the deaths of thousands of armed forces personnel and civilians, an ignominious defeat and surrender and imprisonment of about 92,000 soldiers and civilians.
Initially, when he first came to power, Mr Bhutto did many good things for the country and the people of Pakistan. However, sycophants put him on a wrong course and turned him into an arrogant ruler. His blunder of appointing Gen Zia as army chief resulted in his overthrow and hanging and led to the worst dictatorial rule in Pakistan. Had Mr Bhutto followed honest procedures in both elections and appointments, Pakistan would have been in a different position today.
Not having learnt from history, Nawaz Sharif listened to his sycophants and unwise advisors and appointed the overambitious Gen Musharraf as army chief, superseding many others. He paid heavily for his blunder. He was lucky not to have met the same fate as Mr Bhutto’s, thanks to the intervention of the Saudi king. Gen Musharraf had been ready to stage a coup by June 1999, but could not do so due to US intervention. The so-called aeroplane incident gave him the excuse he needed. Musharraf’s “blunders” were not unintentional – they were well calculated to facilitate his becoming an absolute ruler and to prolong his stay in power.
However, he forgot that man proposes, God disposes. Ultimately he was removed in disgrace and, despite many vows to the contrary, left the country. The harm done to the country is extensive and will take a long time to repair.
