THIS is with reference to the article ‘A military is only for war’ (Oct 10) which carried a one-line highlight, saying: ‘Had Sandhurst-trained UK officers run British organisations, they too might have failed like PIA, PSM, etc.’ Whoever came up with the said highlight actually exhibited grave prejudice and naïveté.

The much-maligned military dictator, Gen Pervez Musharraf, tasked not a Sandhurst-trained general but a Kakul-trained retired Lt-Colonel to put things right at Pakistan Steel Mills.

The result was that PSM, which was mostly in the red over the years, due to various factors, including long-distance bureaucratic oversight, earned unprecedented profits and paid off its debts to the government. Come the democratically-elected civilian government in 2008, it gobbled up all the profit left by the military dictator and plunged PSM back into deep losses through what case only described as relentless and unabashed corruption.

As regards PIA, it was under Air Marshal Nur Khan that it earned the reputation of being one of the best airlines in the world, which also helped set up several other airlines.

There is no denying that one should do what one is trained to do, but to infer that PSM was “chronically sick” because of it being under military officers is to give vent to one’s ignorance or prejudice, or both. Like it or not, it was under military officers that the PSM did better.

The real cause of the failure of PSM and its ultimate closure is the interference, ineptitude, greed, and total absence of integrity of the democratically-elected civilian governments, who are now the two main members of the recently-formed opposition alliance, which is threatening to bring back more and ‘real’ democracy.

We should be proud of our armed forces. Of all our state institutions, they are the most disciplined, and can not only look the enemy in the eye and shoot down intruders, but can also successfully run a business empire, and are adept at creating unimaginable opportunities.

M.R. Ali
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2020