ISLAMABAD, April 30: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has called for reversal of the policy of appointing military officers against civilian posts, saying that the militarisation of civilian institutions was a recipe for disaster. Speaking at a press conference, Secretary Information of the party Ahsan Iqbal warned against attempts to, what he called, turn Pakistan into a garrison state and said it was destroying the capacity, morale and character of civilian institutions besides compromising the professionalism of the military as competition for appointment against attractive civilian posts among military officers intensified.

He said the number of serving and retired generals working on civilian posts in the country was the highest in the world. The number of retired and serving military officers occupying key civilian positions in the federal government is over six hundred, he said, adding that it fuelled strong anti-military sentiments in civil society, which was not even in the military’s own interest.

Mr Iqbal said the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report had pointed out that military dictators dished out favours to military officials in the form of civilian jobs, allotment of land and other financial benefits in order to keep their power base intact. “This policy may serve well General Musharraf in the short term but its long-term consequences for both civilian and military institutions are disastrous,” he noted.

Without naming India, he said “In our neighbouring country senior military officers after their retirement either write books or join think-tanks to serve their country while our military dictators have set a bad tradition of patronage and financial rewards which do not let our senior officers to do the same”.

He said it was high time the military leadership realised its limits and let constitutional, democratic and civilian institutions grow with continuity.

He said the country’s highest office was occupied by a serving general on indefinite extension. The prime minister’s secretariat, civil service training institutions, the Federal Public Service Commission and the ministry of interior have today more serving or retired generals than ever before, he added.

In the prime minister’s secretariat, Major-Gen Farooq Ahmad Khan, who till very recently was the Federal Relief Commissioner, is now the chairman of prime minister’s inspection commission.

He said Erra had a serving Lt-Gen, Nadeem Ahmad, as a vice- chairman. The former Erra chairman Lt-Gen Mohammad Zubair has been given a task relating to mega dams in the planning commission.

The Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) today also has an all time high number of retired generals. The FPSC is headed by Lt-Gen (retired) Shahid Hameed who has recently replaced Lt-Gen (retired) Jamshed Gulzar. Its members include Lt-Gen (retired) Abdul Ahad Najmi and Rear Admiral (retired) Nishat Rafi.

The country’s foreign missions abroad continue to attract senior military officers against the quota of non-career diplomats. A record number of generals has been posted as country’s ambassadors, he said.

Those still serving include Lt-Gen Iftikhar Hussain Shah (Ankara), Lt-Gen Khateer Hasan Khan (ambassador-designate to Thailand), Maj-Gen Syed Haider Jawad (Brunei), Maj-Gen Ali Baz Khan (ambassador-designate to Jakarta), Maj-Gen Talat Munir (Kuala Lumpur), Maj-Gen Tajul Haq (Kiev), former chief of the naval staff Admiral Shahid Karimullah (Riyadh), Air Vice Marshal Iqbal Haider (Tripoli) and former Chief of the Army Staff Gen Jehangir Karamat (Washington).

Mr Iqbal said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which should have been headed by a serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court according to a decision of the apex court, was headed by Lt-Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz.

One of his two deputies is Maj-Gen Mohammad Siddiq. Director General NAB Rawalpindi is Admiral Pervez Asghar. Its Lahore, Karachi and Quetta regional offices are also headed by major generals while the Peshawar office is led by Air Vice Marshal Tahir Rafiq Butt, he added.