Night of the Generals

Recently some major/lieutenent generals of the Pak Army were promoted
to next higher grade.
In any other country it is a routine matter worth hardly a two column
heading. But in Pakistan,
most newspapers printed it as a lead story and some even went as far
as printing special supplements.
Call it sycophancy or a precautionary measure. Who knows in them is
not hidden our new tormentor, Pakistan's
new president.

If our generals had only a hobby or pastime to reform civilian
matters, may be people would not have
been so sick and tired of them. The job brings in many fringe benefits
and perks. Whenever a defence
colony expands, it is formally inaurgurated by a senior general, often
by Chief of Army staff. On
this auspicious occasion, one or two plots are presented to him, for
without his patronage the
enterprize could not have succeeded. General Pervaiz Musharraf for
example, has a plot in every
city worth the name from Karachi to Islamabad and Lahore to Gwadar.He
even owns a farmland on the
percincts of Lahore.Javed Hashmi, a Muslim League politician was
sentenced for treason for pointing
out such irregularities and would have languished for 20 years in
jail, had the pro active CJ Iftikhar
Chaudhry not rescued him.

Earning commission on defence purchases is the inalieanable right of
every army general.I recently
came across a manager who narrated an interesting episode to me. The
army was buying 200 Trucks and
was inclined towards famous Swedish brand Volvo. A Japanese marketing
manager met him and pointed
the vast price difference. He said he knew, Japanese Hino Trucks were
far cheaper and equally effective,
but he had the authority not to buy the cheapest.He would go for
Volvos unless an amount of US $100,000
is paid to him and his family of 10 is sent on tour of Switzerland on
company expense. The deal thus
fall through, and the Japanese Manager became so furious that he
openly started calling all Pakistanis
cheat and corrupt. Ziaul Haq invnted a new principle of internal
control according to which, civilian
accountants and auditors cannot know the importance of a purchase or
construction
and hence are incapable of verifying their authenticity.If the army
was developing a weapon, it can
show one million dollars as spent on its testing without producing any
concrete evidence. Contrast
this with the paltry corruption of Rs 42,000 by an Indian Major
General which had created such a
hue and cry when Tehalka raised it on its site. In the 1965 war, an
Indian general was working as
the war correspondent of "Times of India", just to make a few extra
bucks to supplement his income.
Whereas generals in other countries engage in strategic studies after
their retirement, our generals
like to head profitable positions in the state enterprizes or
government departments. You will find
generals having no experience or knowledge of education serving as
Vice Chancellors. Army Colonels
heading Steel Mills and even Water and Power facilities. Their
capabliity to make money out of
every opportunity borders ingenuity. But come to their own field and
you will not find many general
seriously concerned with war planning and strategy improvement.The
Evantuality of war with India has
been ruled out of question after acquisition of Atomic Bomb. Yet
expensive purchase of arsenal is
continuing to earn commission on it. No wonder, Pak Army is the number
one buyer of costly American
equipment in the region in 2006. American Army itself is so squeezed
by budget constraints that the
joke prevailing in its army messese today is that squeeze is so tight
that they have to use one ply
toilet paper. Only high ranking officers who are in the habit of
asking for backup or duplicate are
entitled to use a 2 ply tissue paper.

Can a nation whose one third population lives below poverty line
and does not get safe drinking
water, afford to foot the huge bill of previliges to its mammoth
Army ?. Indeed Pakistani soldiers are
brave and in every war have shown courage and gallantry. But their
ideological training except from
home teaching can at best be called inadequate. Instead of devoting
themselves to the greater
glory of Islam and safeguarding the sovereignity of the motherland,
they are taught personal loyalty
to their superiors, resulting in tragedies such as the Lal Masjid and
attack on Waziristan , Wana and
Balochistan. Whereas the first lesson a Muslim soldier should learn is
the principle that there could
be no obedience of anybody, in disobedience of God Almighty. If our
soldiers and officers had followed
this basic principle of Islam, there would have been no bloodshed in
Wana and Waziristan. Especially
Lal Masjid tragedy occurred because army rank and file miserably
failed to observe its duty towards
Allah SWT and fellow citizens.



Every army officer above the rank of a colonel is presented with
a plot of land and cash to construct
a home on it. I did write many times in my columns that Pakistan is
hardly affording their salaries
and perks and it cannot be made to pay for the lavish living of the
Army Officers, but to no avail.
Army Generals are also allowed to import costly cars, duty free, which
they can immediately sell to
the willing buyers and thus make a million rupees, by selling it to
them.


The increase in aerial bombing and artillery attacks on poor,
unarmed citizens to appease America
in the holy month of Ramzan is intolerable. Pervaiz and his coteries
shall soon pay for their crimes
dearly.


Ask any intellectual and he will privately tell you that the top
brass of army is corrupt to the
core and the only remedy is an open revolt causing hundred thousand
deaths in the rank and file.
But I am an optimist and believe that growing awareness in the masses
due to media's freedom will
gradually bring about a change. All illegal Villas built and land
occupied would be nationalized.
As the poet has put it:

Ik kiran Mehar ki zulmaat pe bhari hogi
Raat unki hai, magar subho hamari hogi

That is a single ray of sunlight would shatter the system of darkness.
Indeed night is theirs,but
the dawn would definitely be ours!



Javed Iqbal Kaleem

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