THIS refers to the editorial ‘Military inductees’ (Jan 20) which discussed the most sensitive and much debated issue of civil-military relations. Who is responsible for the ‘militarisation’ of civil institutions? It is true when there is military rule per necessity, officers of the armed forces are posted in various institutions. But history is replete with cases where civil governments themselves nominated such officers to head prestigious organisations, like Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Pakistan Steel, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and many others, for better command and control.

At present, as mentioned in the editorial, 1,027 armed forces officers are working on civilian posts in various organisations. All these officers are employed with the approval of the government.

One important aspect that often gets overlooked in such debates is that the selection against such posts is mostly based on merit.

Most organisations, while advertising the vacant posts, express their preference for retired military officers because of their rich experience in the domains of security and administration.

The prime ministers, having their military secretary as serving brigadier/major-general, make it abundantly clear that army officers are preferred over their civilian counterparts.

Unfortunately, the duty of the executive branch of governance has been left to the judiciary to restrict the military’s constitutional role, whereas it is the domain of the civil machinery.

As long as civilian governments continue to use the crutches of the army, it will not be possible to reduce the strength of military inductees.

Lt-Col (retd) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2022