In her seminal piece titled “Pakistan-from hybrid-democracy to hybrid-martial law” published in the 2019 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistan born and UK based leading expert on the Pakistan armed forces made some very pertinent and precise observations of how the all-powerful Pakistan army was continuing its subtle subversion of the country’s constitution with renewed vigour. One of her prognostications was – “The military is keen to generate a new national discourse in which the army’s position is considered synonymous to the state.” [Emphasis added].

During his farewell address in November 2022, the then Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s not only announced that “the military has decided they will not interfere in any political matter,” but also gave the reassurance that “we are strictly committed to the pledge and will continue to be so.” [Emphasis added]. With such an emphatic guarantee coming from none other than the man ranked 68th in the 2018 Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful People for having “established himself as a mediator and proponent of democracy,” it seemed that Siddiqa’s hitherto fore unblemished record of accurately predicting Rawalpindi’s future course of action would finally come to an end, or so it seemed.

However, by making it clear in his 2024 Independence Day speech that “Any effort to weaken our armed forces is akin to weakening the state,” [Emphasis added], Pakistan army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir has not only added greater credibility to the commonly used description of Pakistan being an army with a state but also made Siddiqa’s half-a-decade old prophecy that “The military is keen to generate a new national discourse in which the army’s position is considered synonymous to the state” come true!

By equating the military with the state and introducing “digital terrorism” in Pakistan’s lexicon, Rawalpindi has craftily imposed the “emperor’s new clothes” situation on the hapless people of Pakistan. The term ‘digital terrorism’ was first mentioned during the 83rd........

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