An unstoppable force meets an unmovable object. That is a famous paradox used to demonstrate that two such forces cannot exist at the same time. Of course this paradox is used in matters theological, but we did see a demonstration of this paradox most recently in Pakistan. Pakistan is, of course, a land of paradoxes. In the ‘land of the pure’ there is hardly anything that is pure, neither the people nor the environment. There are some political realities that we in Pakistan have learned to live with. Of these the most important is that, from a historical perspective, there is one unmovable object and that is the Pakistan army and, by extension, its much feared and talked about spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). At least within the country, no political power has been able to ‘push around’ the army and get away with it. Yes, you can make compromises, you can give some and take some, you can go around it but you cannot move it from its present pre-eminent position. Something changed over the last decade and that is the emergent media. Today, there is one media house that is the largest media conglomerate in Pakistan, which has been successful in influencing government policy especially during and after the recent elections that brought the PML-N into power. So, perhaps, one can forgive the media house and its owners for thinking that they have become an unstoppable force in Pakistani politics. In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the journalist Hamid Mir, the confrontation between the army and this media house was exactly an attempt by a self-styled, unstoppable force trying to move an unmovable object. As the original paradox goes, nothing is expected to happen in such a confrontation. However, the more important question in my mind is why this media house decided to take on the army. Was it some misplaced sense of omnipotence or were they egged on, receiving assurances from the PML-N government of full support? It is also a fact that, in Pakistan, the media survives on government support so it is quite likely that this media house embarked upon the confrontation at the behest of the government. Frankly, a successful media conglomerate is run by businessmen who quite know which side of their bread is buttered. For them to take on an institution as strong as the army makes no sense unless they felt that it would somehow impact their bottom line in a positive way. As one of the great songs by Jim Croce says, “You don’t tug on superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull that mask off that old Lone Ranger. And you don’t mess around with Jim.” In the song, Jim did not come out so well at the hands of Slim, but then the media organisation is no Slim. So then the question is why did this media house take on the army? Was it because it received assurances from the government that nothing would happen to it and all they needed was to undermine the army a little bit, sort of soften it up so that our prime minister (PM) Mian Nawaz Sharif, could exercise greater control over the army?We know that most politicians are not known for their brilliant tactical abilities. Politicians confounding ordinary people with false promises is quite the norm all over the world but in a country like Pakistan where the army has for over 50 or more decades run the country directly or indirectly, to imagine that the army and its leadership will be as gullible as ordinary people is extremely disingenuous. Whatever happened, happened, and luckily Mr Hamid Mir survived the attempt on his life and is on the way to what seems like a full recovery. However, the brief confrontation between the media house and the army proved that the media group is by no means an unstoppable force. It is a business house and, as such, its business success will always take precedence over any political aspirations. Members of the PML-N government rapidly withdrew any support for the group and came out fully in support of the army. As far as the ‘facts’ behind the assassination attempt on Mir are concerned, we now have a ‘high level’ judicial commission investigating the matter but that is another pet peeve of mine. Are our law enforcement agencies so worthless that in all important matters we have to resort to judicial commissions to investigate any matter of some national importance? From a historical perspective, the findings of such high level commissions are rarely made available to the public. So does this mean that whatever this commission finds will never be disclosed?Without delving into complicated ‘conspiracy’ theories, the peculiar relationship that our PM has with his appointed chiefs of the army staff (COAS) is well known. What our PM does not realise is that however ‘meek’ a general might seem before becoming the COAS, once he has that fourth star and sits at the head of the table with a dozen or so corps commanders, he is now a new person and represents the army and its corporate interests. His loyalty is now to the force he leads and not to the person who appointed him. I entirely support the idea that, in a functioning democracy, the elected head of government is also the head of the armed forces. The problem however is whether Pakistan is a functioning democracy. For all practical purposes Pakistan vacillates between being a ‘kleptocracy’ and an oligarchy. The present PML-N government is a mixture of both. I do not blame the army for not respecting this government as a truly democratic dispensation. But then, returning to the original paradox, load shedding and terrorism are the real ‘unmovable objects’ as far as our PM and his minions are concerned, better from a political perspective to befuddle the ‘people’ in matters like Musharraf’s trial and now the confrontation between the media group and the army rather than talk of these things. The writer has practiced and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com