If a country’s Army and defense are weak, it cannot even survive two hours against aggressors such as India and Israel, says Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider Khan.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader said the popularity of a national leader does not determine the strength of a country’s defense. “The Army is also from among us,” he said, supporting a united front and collaboration between the civilian and security spheres for national security.
“However,” he continued, “it is up to civilians to carve out their own space, build a working relationship with clearly defined mandates.” Maintaining similar processes had taken place the world over, he said this is how the country can and should proceed.
“I urge everyone throughout the country to recognize that the four-day war with India [in May 20250 helped us paper over decades of incompetence,” he said. “We regained respect the world over and we need to ensure it is maintained,” he said. “Any Pakistani abroad must think twice—not only should your personal dignity be kept in mind, but also that of your country,” he added.
Deliberating on the prevailing political scenario, Haider dismissed recent statements from some spheres indicating Pakistan would not need nuclear weapons or heavy armament if it had peace with all its neighbors. “Our situation is not that simple,” he said. “We need a strong Army, the nuclear bomb, missile technology. We need all this because our enemy states are unwilling to even accept our presence, they want to erase us from the map,” he said. “A strong Army is, therefore, our necessity and we cannot survive without it,” he emphasized.
During the interview, the Punjab governor also weighed in on recent controversial legislations passed by Parliament, such as the fixing of the tenure of the Chief of Army Staff to five years and establishing a Federal Constitutional Court that supersedes the Supreme Court.
“Previous military-civilian rifts usually arose out of people—not everyone, but many—not wanting to give up the top slot,” he explained. “It is a fact that every Army chief had wanted an extension and failing that they would decide to oust the sitting government,” he said of Pakistan’s history of civil-military rifts and military rule. “The new law fixing the Army chief’s tenure to five years aligns it with the democratic government so that whenever a new government comes in, a new Army chief will also come in,” he said, maintaining this would help reduce pressure on civilian setups.
On the judiciary, he said it was “undeniable” that the courts had played a major role in damaging the national economy. “You can go all the way back to [the judicial murder of] Shaheed Zulfikar Bhutto or even earlier,” he said, adding a more recent example was that of the Reko Diq project, whose mining agreement the Supreme Court had declared void ab initio in 2013.
“It [Reko Diq] is now being implemented with expectations of $2 billion in revenue by 2027 and $25-30 billion by 2035,” he said, lamenting the court ruling had wasted 25-30 years of the country’s economic potential. “It has been all due to judicial decisions,” he said, maintaining the judiciary had made its own “sultanate” and needed to be reined in for national prosperity.
Not just symbolic
On his position as Governor of Punjab, Haider sought to negate the impression it was a mere symbolic post. “I do not consider this a symbolic position. I am not only enjoying the office of the Governor of Punjab, but also utilizing its authority to facilitate the public,” he maintained, adding he was also working for his party and for improving the public sector in whatever capacity was available to him.
“In the past 1.5-2 years, I am content and thankful to God that people are seeing—and my personal conscience is satisfied—that whatever authority vests with me, I am using it to benefit the country,” he said, noting he regularly met the general public and ensured their problems were addressed.
“I work from 9-10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on official work and the rest of the day, sometimes up to 9-10 p.m., on public work,” he said, explaining that the vast majority merely wanted to feel heard. “It is also unfortunate that people here still fear visiting police for necessary work because they feel they might be detained for seeking justice,” he lamented, noting that if a mere call from him helped them, he was happy to provide some benefit to the impoverished.
“Anyone who comes to me for work, regardless of party affiliation, I make an effort to help them,” he said. “People tend to have small problems, nothing too major, related to property disputes or police or injustice, and I try to help them to the best of my ability,” he added.