When a ruling party MNA visiting London earlier this month told me that a part of the resources belonging to the budget of Nuclear Command and Control Division was recently spent for recarpeting and refurbishing a street in the Rawalpindi Cantonment area to oblige a retired pettibhai, I refused to believe him. I thought he was pulling my leg or was in too much of high spirits to know what he was saying. Let me, however, hasten to add that the gentleman in question is an honourable man and I had never found him to be indulging in irresponsible rumour mongering.

Next to test my gullibility was a story I saw on the BBC Urdu Service’s website recounting how our troops in blue helmets based in Congo had turned their stay in the war-ravaged country into a golden opportunity to make a quick buck on the side.

I read the story twice, but still could not bring myself to believe it. I thought some irresponsible journalist had concocted a cock and bull story to malign Pakistan which has already become a bad name in the international media because of widespread media allegations that the country had become a sanctuary and training centre for Al Qaeda operatives who then fan out to wreak destruction world wide. Remember the way the world media went after Pakistan’s cricket team when its coach Bob Woolmer died in Jamaica. By innuendos and made-up anecdotal evidence the death was first made out to look like a murder and then they went to town with speculations about alleged involvement of some member or members of Pakistan cricket team in this so-called murder. Then they started a futile hunt for opportunity, motive and murder weapon.

But then BBC is regarded highly for its responsible journalism and its credibility. And then when the foreign office spokesperson reacting to the Congo story said that the matter was still under investigation, I could not but reluctantly persuade myself to take another look at the BBC report. It still is unbelievable. The modus aprandi that the story said was being allegedly used by the Pakistani troops to get hold of gold is stunningly simple. In the day the troops fight the rebels forcing them to flee leaving their weapons behind. In the evening, these weapons are returned to the rebels as a trade-off for gold nuggets from the mines presumably under the control of the rebels. And what do the blue helmeted Pakistani troops do with this gold? They sell it to Indian gold merchants!

And as I had just happened to have concluded Ayesha Siddiqa’s book, Military Inc. inside Pakistan’s Military Economy published by London’s Pluto Press my credulity was indeed on a severe test all this last week. Ayesha quotes Alexander Cockburn’s book in which the New York columnist had accused a senior general of Zia’s army, General Fazle Haq, who was also the governor of NWFP, of being part of the drug trafficking racket. According to the author, the opium trucked from Afghanistan into Pakistan was sold to Fazle Haq for further refinement of heroin (page 157).

The book which is about to be launched worldwide is a well researched thesis on how the Pakistani armed forces have acquired the enormous economic clout (some say 25 per cent of the national economy) over the years, the truth about their claims of being more efficient managers than the private sector and the impact of their expanding economic interests on their professionalism. There are no sensational disclosures in the book. Much of the facts about the holdings of the armed forces have already been reported by media. It is, however, purely an academic work and has opened many more doors and windows to a business which has largely remained non-transparent and has so far been conducted as an exclusive conglomerate of senior officers. Ayesha believes it is more to protect and promote their economic interests that the armed forces take over the political reins of the country frequently than to save Pakistan from the fiction of collapse that they build up justify their bloodless coups.

At one place she writes:” The impact of MiIbus (A term she uses for Military Business) on the character of the military institution cannot be denied. In fact, the years of involvement of senior generals in profit-making activities had two consequences. First, the military’s echelons turned into powerful group of capitalists who had the financial prowess to exploit the financial and other resources of the state. The senior generals…used the organisation’s influence to obtain opportunities to further their financial and political power. Second, given these economic interests backed with political power, the military institution along with its serving and retired members transformed itself into a fraternity which was gradually consolidated into an independent class.”(Pages 245-246)

At another place she quotes Lt.Gen. (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, the federal Education Minister: “(He) threw a challenge by saying ‘show me one business run by any serving or retired military officer that has failed. Remember that the only time the railways was out of deficit was when it was run by a general’. He was referring to his own tenure, but he did not point out that the railways came out of the deficit mainly because of the sale of its land, which resulted in an injection of capital (Page 147).” But Ayesha could have also referred to the bleak performance of Wapda, under a number of retired generals including General Zahid Ali Akbar (known as the most corrupt officer of them all) and General Rao who served as Chairman of Wapda from 1997 to perhaps 2004.

The blighted authority has continued to remain in the red all through and, to add salt to the national wounds, General Rao who wasted more than half of his tenure trying to gather evidence of foul play in the IPPs simply forgot to foresee the onrushing gaps between supply and demand, criminally ignoring making timely investments to increase generation capacities. And now one of his former army colleagues General Amjad, the new chairman of the privatised KESC, is facing the music in Karachi where the power is down several times a day. The same gentleman suffered from a silly bout of arrogance last year when as the chairman of the Fauji Foundation he refused to appear before the senate committee on defence which wanted to ask him why he had undersold one of the units under the control of FF on the plea that the foundation was a private entity, ignoring the fact that it has been rescued on more than one occasion by injecting resources diverted from the defence budget..

Ayesha’s book is a treasure for researchers as it attacks the subject matter from an analytical angle and should be a must read for all serious politicians, defence analysts, media commentators and military planners in the country and outside.