5th Generation Hybrid Warfare is being mentioned since the past year or so.

I had written an article “(Pakistan) At a crossroad’ which was published in The News way back in August 2008 when I first indicated what is now mentioned as 5th Generation Hybrid Warfare. An excerpt

That is exactly what was happening to Pakistan at that time.There was violence all over Pakistan and it was being fought by the State under the banner ‘War on Terror’.That violence is what I had called ‘insurgency(ies)’.On the political front the period 2007-8 was one of turmoil

That political turmoil in 2007-8 was related to Musharraf’s second emergency of Nov 2007, the Pakistan Civil Society’s movement for the restoration of the then house arrested Supreme Court Judges and the 12 May 2008 Karachi bloodshed and total anarchy. Pakistan was in a tail spin

That is when I saw what was happening to Pakistan and wrote that sentence in my article which was published in The News in Aug 2008.Why was it that those in power ie Gen Musharraf couldn’t see what Pakistan was being made to go through.He had all kinds of resources to know it all

Turmoil i.e. an intensive mix of insurgencies and political uncertainties continued happening to Pakistan through PPP’s complete term of 5 years(2008-13).The restored Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry instead of making positive history became a Suo moto CJP. We all know the details

On the insurgencies front we know all that happened in Swat and other erstwhile FATA Agencies. Yet, none in power realized that Pakistan was being hurt through a new type of warfare. Come 2013 a general elections is held. A new Govt is formed.

By Aug 2014,that new Govt is hardly settled and is just about finding its feet when a cleric and a political party storm Islamabad and block Pakistan’s Capital for 126 days. So much so that the Chinese President’s visit to Islamabad for the CPEC signing was also postponed.

That Govt was then fully paralyzed and kept under immense pressure. Finally, the the then PM was removed by the SC of Pakistan. Another became PM for the remaining 10 months tenure. Then came 2018 elections which brought about the current Govt. Those elections have been disputed

Nevertheless, a new Govt was formed in July 2018. It is still the incumbent Govt. The last 6/7 years of Pakistan’s politics have been the most turbulent. The gulfs are wide and unbridgeable. An already incoherent society divided on many counts is now politically deeply divided

So in our journey from the time(Aug 2008) when I wrote about States being torn apart by its enemies through the fomenting of insurgencies and political uncertainties nothing much has changed. Pakistan is still standing at that same cross road that I mentioned in 2008.

Yes,some of all that happened and is still happening against Pakistan was surely foreign sponsored.But,Pakistanis must come to understand that a lot of all that happened was of our own domestic doings and those actions of ours gave the foreign hands the ability to hurt Pakistan

I am of the firm conviction that a 5th Generation Hybrid War can ONLY be waged against a deeply divided Country which is devoid of solid political leadership or is a Country where leadership cannot/does not practice harmonic politics.Pakistan cannot sustain politics of hatred

Therefore,it is we ourselves who have to decide whether we are going to make Pakistan susceptible to the 5th Generation Hybrid Warfare or are we going to close all the exploitable doors presently open to our enemies to launch such a war against our wonderful motherland - Pakistan

Ultimately,it is now up to all the power wielders of Pakistan to scratch their heads,join them together and decide where do they want to take Pakistan from the cross road that it has been standing on for over two decades now.The decision must be a good one and time is of essence

The article I mentioned ‘At a cross road’ that was published in The News(2008)is attached below.Pakistan must rise to blunt all the threats that can emanate against it from outside Pakistani borders by making its domestic situation stable and harmonic https://www.sharifpost.com/2008/08/21/at-a-crossroad/