The retired colonel’s letter

Raw nerves

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

A Pakistani newspaper publishes an open letter by a retired Indian army officer—that doesn’t say anything that many Pakistani commentators are not already saying—and you witness some very interesting reactions.

First, several people, including retired Pakistani army officers, write to the editor, defending their army and shooting the Indian messenger. For how dare an Indian, not least a retired army officer, have the temerity to ask the Pakistani army chief not to surrender to the Taliban! Surely, shouldn’t India put its own house in order first?

Then the Daily Times’ Ejaz Haider makes a bizarre point about the “consensus” in the Indian media about national security issues, and how this rules out the publication of a Pakistani officer’s open letter to the Indian army chief. It appears that Mr Haider has not heard about the invitation extended by one of India’s leading magazine publishing house to a certain retired Pakistani army officer, one General Pervez Musharraf, to speak at an exclusive high-profile event.

Update: And after receiving more outpourings of outrage, the editor of the newspaper apologises, alleging that “some of its content was false.”

The News recently published an article by Harish Puri on its op-ed pages. The piece did not merit publication as some of its content was false and malicious and ran counter to the policy of the newspaper. The article did not go through the regular and rigorous process of vetting and was printed without clearance from senior editors of The News. The feedback received from the vast majority of our readers has also been one of indignation at the distorted presentation of facts, and indeed, at the publishing of the article itself.

The article should not have been published by The News and we sincerely regret that it was. –Editor [The News]

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