'Tanks not in working condition': When ex-Pakistan army chief said can't go to war with India - viral video

Pakistan's former Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had once said that his military can't fight with India and therefore Islamabad should go for a settlement with New Delhi. Bajwa served as army chief from 2016 to 2022 and it was during his tenure India and Pakistan worked out a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2021, Bajwa, talking to about 20-25 journalists and later the country's Foreign Office, claimed that the Pakistan army can't fight with India, as revealed by two senior Pakistani journalists, Hamid Mir and Naseem Zehra. During a talk show, Hamid Mir said Bajwa had struck "a deal" with India on Kashmir but the details of which was yet to be out.

Also read: Ex-Pakistan army officer's big claim: 'ISI planning attack on Imran Khan'

Also read: Pakistan is closer than ever to becoming a 'zombie' state, warns ex-govt advisor

Mir said Gen Bajwa held secret talks with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and after the ceasefire along the LoC, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to visit Pakistan. "When the Foreign Office and then foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi came to know about it, they went to Imran Khan and asked whether he was aware. Imran Khan said - 'I'm told about it...Bajwa and Faiz had come...talks are going on...but he (Modi) is coming that I don't know'," Mir said. 

Faiz Hameed was the ISI chief from June 2019 to November 2021. "Imran Khan then asked General Faiz to at least take Foreign Office on board. After this, Bajwa came to the foreign office and lectured them — it was the same lecture given before us — do you remember — tanks are not in a condition to work, there is no diesel for the movements of cannons...this kind of talks he did," Mir said in the conversation with Zehra. To which, Naseem Zehra said normally such army chiefs "should be court-martialed".

Mir then referred to a meeting of journalists with Bajwa in some auditorium where corps commanders do conferences. "Sitting there at the auditorium, you (Bajwa) are saying before 20-25 journalists that Pakistan is incapable of fighting...army chief is telling us a story that military can't fight India therefore we should settle," Mir recalled.

According to Mir, Pakistan's Foreign Office confronted Bajwa and said the move was in the country's national interest. "Bajwa got angry and then said Modi is to visit Pakistan in April (2021)...Bajwa had even fixed the date through General Faiz and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval," the journalist claimed.

Imran Khan was ousted from power when General Bajwa was still the army chief. Many believe that Khan's tough stand on the US and growing proximity to Russia at a time when Moscow was planning an attack on Ukraine irked the military leadership which did not want to annoy America as the relationship between Islamabad and Washington had already nosedived. 

Imran Khan suspects the role of the military behind his exit from power as he claims he believed in an "independent foreign policy". The former prime minister had long been at odds with Bajwa on a series of issues but what triggered the fall was the removal of his hand-picked ISI chief Faiz Hamid, who was also instrumental in regime change in Afghanistan.