Self-serving bias is a tendency amongst individuals to attribute their successes to their own abilities and efforts, while blaming external factors for their failures. Though a common psychological defence mechanism used to protect self-esteem, avoid negative emotions like guilt and shame, as well as maintain a sense of control or justification after failure or mistakes, it can sometimes lead to distorted perceptions as well as conflicts, and Pakistan is classic case of this bias.

So, during the course of the 267^th Corps Commanders’ Conference held in February, when Pakistan’s army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir expressed serious concern over the alleged use of Afghan soil by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] terrorists and asked Afghanistan’s interim Taliban led government to take concrete action against this terrorist group, his rhetoric was largely interpreted as an attempt to save face by diverting public attention from Rawalpindi’s abysmal failure to rein-in TTP by blaming Kabul.

Six months later, while speaking to the Pakistani community during his two day visit to Brussels, Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir claimed that New Delhi was “actively funding and supporting banned outfits like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] and Balochistan Liberation Army [BLA] to destabilise our country.” Declaring that Pakistan will “not tolerate any aggression,” he told the audience that “It’s my duty to avenge the blood of every Pakistani.” So, while the 'mischief maker' had changed, the underlying narrative of external entities trying to destabilise Pakistan remained unaltered. 

However, with Pakistan’s Centre for Research and Security Studies [CRSS] reporting an increase of nearly 28 percent in fatalities suffered by security forces in the third quarter of the current year as compared to its second quarter [166 versus 130], it’s evident that the Field Marshal’s warning hasn’t scared anyone. And why should it? Hasn’t the Pakistan army’s inhuman perpetration of forced disappearances and extra judicial executions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] and Balochistan given space to TTP and armed Baloch groups, which they have successfully exploited?

In 2022, didn’t the Pakistan army allow TTP terrorists to re-establish themselves in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by outrightly dismissing public outrage against growing presence of TTP fighters in Swat and Dir districts by calling these reports “grossly exaggerated and misleading”? Most importantly, if TTP is indeed an Indian proxy, why did the Pakistan army not only accept their offer of a ceasefire but even enter into negotiations and unconditionally release more than a hundred convicted TTP fighters as a “confidence building measure”? 

Field Marshal Munir may be a great Islamic scholar but his military foresight appears to be just average. For example, by attempting to divert public attention from the Pakistan army’s military failures in KP and Balochistan by resurrecting the Two Nation Theory, he incited the targeted killing of Hindu tourists in Pahalgam [J&K] by Pakistan sponsored terrorists and invited New Delhi’s wrath. Wasn’t it naïve of him to have expected that India wouldn’t seek retribution?

The same has happened after he ordered airstrikes against what Rawalpindi claimed were TTP hideouts located inside Afghanistan. While absence of an air force and lack of credible air defence assets in Afghanistan made this task easy, it failed to intimidate either TTP or Kabul. On the contrary, the significant success achieved by Kabul’s ground forces during its retaliatory actions clearly indicates that Field Marshal Munir hadn’t anticipated such a fierce response, which is definitely an unpardonable military blunder.

So, if Kabul is indeed providing safe sanctuaries to TTP on its soil as Pakistan claims and has completely disregarded Islamabad’s repeated requests to stop doing so, then why is the Pakistani Field Marshal accepting this aggression and going back on his word of acting against abettors of terrorism and avenging the death of Pakistanis?

When the Taliban's stance on the issue of TTP remains unchanged, why is Pakistan still negotiating with Kabul? Perhaps Field Marshal Munir has realised that his threat of war has scared no one, and his stoic silence suggests that he’s on the back-foot. However, utterances of some Pakistani ministers clearly indicate that they are in fact communicating the embarrassed Field Marshal’s missives.

One such example is Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif’s jingoist remark- “Let me assure them [Kabul] that Pakistan does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding.” As government functionaries always maintain civility even when they mean to be rough, such a crude threat reeking of military arrogance is a big giveaway that it's the conceited Field Marshal’s response.

There’s an old saying that a window of diplomacy must be kept open. However, by saying that "There should be no doubt that Kabul is responsible for the terrorism in Pakistan,” and repeating that “Kabul is a tool for Delhi,” Aziz has done just the opposite. Furthermore, by adding that “The junta there [in Kabul] has elements that have visited India and visited their temples," Asif has added a communal angle to New Delhi’s engagement with Kabul. His threat to Kabul of “a military response 50 times stronger,” may have pleased the Field Marshal but has done a great disservice to Pakistan.

 Accusing the Afghan delegation of resorting to “blame game, deflection and ruses,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also articulated the uncharitable observation that “Since the Taliban regime bears no responsibility towards the people of Afghanistan and thrives on war economy, it desires to drag and mire Afghan people into a needless war.” Such reckless utterances serve no purpose and only breed animosity.

 It’s worth mentioning here that while Kabul hasn’t issued any war threat, both Pakistan’s Defence and Information ministers have done so. While Daily Times [Pakistan] has quoted Asif saying that if dialogue fails, Pakistan may have no choice but to engage in open conflict with Afghanistan,” Tarar has accused Kabul of pushing Afghanistan into war.

What lays ahead remains to be seen. However, having had made very aggressive statements on military action against what he alleges are foreign abettors [read-India and Afghanistan], Field Marshal Munir, who claims that “God has made me the protector of the country,” and has threatened “to take down half the world” if Pakistan thinks it’s going down, is a potentially dangerous person. The saving grace is that even though he suffers from acute self serving bias, the plus point of this syndrome is that it can motivate individuals by preserving their self-concept [the multidimensional perception of who we are, including self-esteem and self image].

 And the most reassuring part however is that it’s highly unlikely that US President Donald Trump’s “favourite Field Marshal” would do anything so crass that it annoys his benefactor!

 Email:--------------------------nileshkunwar.56@gmail.com