In a farcical twist worthy of a low-budget action flick, Pakistan’s military top brass attempted to rewrite military history – armed not with facts, but with a photograph pinched from a 2019 Chinese army drill.
At a ceremony organised to commemorate a supposed military ‘success’ (details classified, perhaps even from reality itself), Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff-turned-Field Marshal-for-flattery, General Asim Munir, presented Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a grandly framed photo.
The image was touted as proof of Pakistan’s decisive strike against India in ‘Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos’ – a name more dramatic than anything it might represent.
‘Nakal with no akal’
Only problem? The fiery image of an artillery barrage was traced back to China, not Pakistan, and certainly not India. It was lifted from footage of a PLA rocket artillery exercise that had nothing to do with Pakistan’s ever-aspiring battlefield bravado.
AIMIM chief Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi couldn’t resist the punchline, quipping, ‘nakal karne ke liye bhi akal chahiye’—even to copy, you need brains. One might add: even propaganda requires quality control. ‘These stupid jokers want to compete with India,’ Owaisi quipped.
Musharraf’s ghost looms large
But the comedy doesn’t stop there. In a move that reeked of political trauma and institutional paranoia, Shehbaz Sharif insisted on taking Fake Marshal, sorry Field Marshal, Asif Munir along on his recent visit to Iran. Why? Because his brother, Nawaz Sharif, once left the country on a foreign tour and returned to find himself jobless, courtesy of General Pervez Musharraf’s spontaneous coup in 1999. Once bitten, twice shy?
Shehbaz’s travel insurance
Shehbaz, it seems, has learned that when you leave your deputy chief behind, you risk returning to find him in your chair. Better to take him along, shake hands with foreign dignitaries, and make sure the only thing being plotted is the dinner menu.
The sham photo-op also raises a more basic question: If the prime minister is being gifted fantasy battle memorabilia, who exactly is scripting Pakistan’s military reality? And if generals are faking war trophies, what else is up for fabrication – victories, votes, or maybe even visionary leadership?
For now, Shehbaz Sharif may want to invest in a good photo fact-checker, or at least demand souvenirs with a watermark that doesn’t read ‘Made in Beijing’.
