PAKISTAN`S greatest enemy today is the enemy within, the Quaid-i-Azam told Raja Sahib of Mahmudabad in 1948, `You have no idea of the situation here. I am surrounded by traitors.

The situation we face today is much worse. Traitors and foreign agents are busy undermining our military institutions.

We live in a society where few have privileges and many are without a kernel of hope. Pakistan is a case of failed leadership, not failed state. All political leaders, without exception, have been tried and found wanting. Who among our leaders has the capacity of seeing far ahead? Who could put together a new political vessel to hold all the boiling discontent of a people increasingly disillusioned by a succession of corrupt politicians? The Pakistan problem has found its deus ex machina in Gen Raheel Sharif. A cleansing wave seems to have arisen from the depth of the nation. Gen Raheel is determined to purge the country of all terrorists and corrupt elements, both civil and military and bring the guilty to justice.

His heart is in the right place. He is well-meaning, sincere and what is most important, his hands are clean. He carries the hopes of millions of Pakistanis on his shoulders. He cannot fail. He must not fail, because he has awakened too many expectations, too many dreams, too manydesires, too many hopes.

A conspiracy designed to emasculate and destroy the army as a fighting force is in operation. All efforts by foreign agents and enemies of Pakistan to weaken the army and Gen Raheel must, therefore, be frustrated.

Today, it is a political and moral imperative for all patriotic Pakistanis to rally round the armed forces and Gen Raheel. The path he has chosen is the only path. The other path leads to the abyss.

Roedad Khan Islamabad