There cannot be bigger ignominy for the Pakistan Army than to be badgered at home by pro-Taliban tribals and attacked from outside – not by India, the traditional adversary – but by its mentor, main arms and aid supplier and the oldest ally, the United States.

This trauma comes amidst a clear back-to-barracks directive from a civilian government that is neither able to defend this dual attack diplomatically, nor allow the army to defend itself. The Army in fact has to stand by a government that has yet to stabilise and gain acceptance of its own constituents, leave alone the people who elected it to power.

The hurt gets worse when the armed forces find that the Head of the State is a military general, who has turned civilian after eight years of virtually single-handed rule – only to lose whatever role he may have envisaged for himself and for the armed forces, after the inglorious political debacle at the elections that he held.

The agreement with the tribals that the now-Mr, or Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, had painstakingly worked out – after a thousand soldiers were killed – has all but collapsed. It has revived the specter of another round of bloodshed among the soldiers in uniform and their extremists who wear no uniform but can shoot as well, and are masters in their own impregnable territories.

Now that the United States has sought to re-assert its right to hot-pursue the Taliban from Afghanistan into Pakistani territory, particularly if an attack or firing originates from there, there is a question on Pakistan's sovereignty and its greatest defender can do little about it.

Unless of course, the political and military authorities decided to take charge and agree that they will shoot to kill Pakistani and foreign terrorists operating from Pakistani soil against the US, NATO and Afghan forces.

The situation arising from mid-June attacks by the US-Afghan forces is summed up by the anguished reaction of the new Pakistani Ambassador in Washington, Mr Husain Haqqani, a respected political thinker and strategic analyst.

“This is the first time the United States has deliberately targeted cooperating Pakistani forces,” he was quoted as telling the New York Times, referring to a US air raid on a border post in the Mohmand Agency.

Mr Haqqani said, “There has been no statement by the US that this was ‘friendly fire’ and that the intention was not to target Pakistani forces.”

The NYT quoted two Pakistani officials from Islamabad as saying that the Pakistani military was so angry over the American air strikes last week that it was threatening to postpone or cancel an American programme to train a Pakistani paramilitary force in counterinsurgency tactics to be used for combating militants.

The report said some Pakistani officials were alleging that the Americans had deliberately fired on their military, killing 11 men from the very paramilitary force the Americans want to train, an accusation the Americans deny.

There has been no word of regret or apology from the Pentagon.

The Pakistan Army can only protest feebly, its denials and outbursts notwithstanding.

The Pentagon has in fact released video footage indicating that a UAV attacked positions in Pakistan to suppress firing from the Pakistani terriotory on NATO and Afghan troops.

This should be humiliating for the Army, which otherwise prides itself as a professional force. And it comes at a time when the civilian government is insisting that the Army should be in barracks and under the control of the elected, political authority.

It has happened nonetheless before also.

After a dozen years of rule by Field Marshal Ayub Khan and again under Gen Yahya Khan, when the country was dismembered and Bangladesh was born.

After the humiliating defeat in the 1971 war with India, more than 93,000 Pakistani soldiers had to surrender, a world record.

The Army had no choice but to leave governance to the civilians. This lasted, uneasily, just about five years though.

The Army bounced back under Gen Ziaul Haq. This phase lasted a good 11 years, till 1988, when he died in an air crash. Although civilian rule came and changed every couple of years, the army had carved a place for itself.

It is part of Pakistan’s recorded history how Gen Mirza Aslam Beg collected funds and organized rigging of election to ensure the defeat of Benazir Bhutto.

Equally well recorded is the tussle between the army and Mian Nawaz Sharif. Armed with a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, Sharif did win one round when he forced an incumbent army chief to resign. But he paid for it dearly when he took on Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf carried out the Kargil misadventure, with or without Sharif’s knowledge.

Their stories differ vastly and it is well nigh impossible to determine who is telling the truth. But the bottom line is that the Kargil operation was indeed a military campaign, and that it was unneeded. It also went awry for Pakistan, humiliating again both the politicians and the military.

It should be appropriate to recall what Lt Gen Ziauddin had to say to Shuja Nawaz in the book "Crossed Swords".

The fact is that Pakistan had to withdraw from Kargil after a military defeat an international odium. The offshoot was the end of the civilian rule and ascendance of Musharraf.

The next nine years had Musharraf calling the shots.

He quit the Army Chief’s job only after ensuring that he was re-elected the President for five years. And he ensured that not only he chose his successor in Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, but also appointed Corps Commanders and Principal Staff Officers of his choice, with a record of being loyal to him.

The above recall is meant to underline the well-known Pakistani adage: Pakistan is ruled by three AAAs, the Army, Allah and America, their order of priority changing with times. It is also meant to ask: how long will the Army stay put in the barracks?

For the moment, Gen Kayani, credited with keeping the army away from the ballot boxes and organizing a fairly free and fair election, is also playing the ball with the civilian leadership.

According to published reports, 72 officers have already been recalled from assignments in non-defence organizations and companies.

However, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and its subsidiary hotels at several places in the world, may have a sizeable number of military officers still as the airline is directly owned and operated by the Pakistani Ministry of Defence as a Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU).

“Ruling is the right of people which they give to their elected representatives ... I urge upon the armed forces to call back all army officers from civilian organisations within two weeks,” Prime Minister Syed Raza Gilani said after getting an unopposed vote of confidence from the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan’s Parliament.

Within hours of taking office, Gen Kayani made changes in the top brass, ostensibly on orders of Gilani. The present political dispensation, especially with Nawaz Sharif back in the political reckoning, is bent on clipping the military’s wings. Indications are that it would do so with determination.

Some key commanders handpicked by President Musharraf have been moved. Gen Kayani transferred two army corps commanders promoted under Musharraf to other posts.

The corps commander in the city of Lahore, Lieutenant General Shafaat Ullah Shah, was reassigned to the post of logistics chief at the Army Headquarters.