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New Delhi: Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan said that Pakistan's recent constitutional amendments were the result of failures that the country faced during Operation Sindoor. Operation Sindoor was carried out by the Indian forces, against Pakistan and was aimed at flushing out terrorists from the country. The Operation authorised by the government, was in response to the Pahalgam attack, which left 26 people dead.
CDS Chauhan was speaking at the Pune Public Policy Festival. He claimed that Pakistan had rushed changes after facing setbacks during Operation Sindoor. India Today quoted him as saying, "The changes which have been brought about in Pakistan, including the constitutional amendment done hurriedly, are actually an acknowledgement of the fact that everything didn’t go well for them in this operation. They found a lot of shortcomings and deficiencies."
Pakistan had made amendments to Article 243 of it's Constitution. This brought about major structural changes in the defence set up in the country, especially in the higher defence organisation. General Chauhan said that the post of Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, intended to promote jointness among the three services, has been abolished, by the country. After abolishing this, they have created a post called Chief of Defence Forces (CDF).
This post however, according to Chauhan can only be created by the Chief of Army Staff, which in some ways raises question marks regarding the entire jointness of the position.
Apart from CDF, the country has also created the position of National Strategy Command and an Army Rocket Forces Command. This according to General Chauhan might just increase their capabilities as they have essentially concentrated power in one person.
He said, "Now the Pakistan Army Chief will be responsible for land operations, joint operations with the Navy and Air Force through the CDF, as well as strategic and nuclear matters."
According to the Army veteran, the creation of the Rocket Forces Command, reflects a land-centric approach of Pakistan's defence forces.
General Chauhan then shifted focus to India. He tried to explain that India's focus would continue to remain on evolving a flexible yet standardised command system capable of responding to conventional and nuclear threats alike.
He said that Operation Sindoor was not over but just on pause. He said that the lessons learnt during the recent standoff with Pakistan, continue to shape the country's defence planning and higher command structures. He said that the recent standoffs with Pakistan, including Operation Sindoor, the Uri surgical strikes and the Galwan Standoff with Chinese forces, have led India to believe that it needs to standardise command structures across all contingencies.
