THE other day, certain proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee were reported in this newspaper that left me shaking my head in bewilderment.
Apparently, the PAC had cleared three retired lieutenant generals of any wrongdoing in a case involving the import of 69 Chinese railway engines at a cost of $98 million back in 2002. I am glad such senior military figures — no doubt with excellent records — were found not guilty. And nor was I surprised by their innocence: of course we expect only persons with unquestioned integrity to attain such heights in our professional army. What took me aback was the fact that three such senior officers were all serving the same civilian organisation.
Early in my long government career, I spent several years in the finance department of the Pakistan Railways, and in those days, I could never imagine that the slots of minister, chairman and general manager would be manned by retired three-star generals. Then, the chairmen and general managers were always professional railway officers with years of experience, while the minister was, of course, an elected member of parliament. However, during martial law, the minister was often a serving general.
Why the railways was blessed with three generals simultaneously is beyond me, but I know that many grown men like playing with model trains, so presumably, being a general would entitle you to dabble with the real thing. A major deal like importing a large number of locomotives would normally involve a long technical process of determining the pros and cons of each model on offer, as well as extensive trials.
In brief, the deal caused a heavy setback to an organisation that was already in a permanent state of crisis. Indeed, several serious accidents featured these very locomotives. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that had civilians been responsible for their procurement, they would have been arrested by the dreaded National Accountability Bureau, and the PAC would not have been as forgiving. I suppose the fact that the PAC subcommittee set up to examine this deal was headed by a retired colonel who is now a member of the National Assembly must have helped.
The PAC exonerated the then railways minister, General Javed Ashraf Qazi (currently the education minister); chairman General Saeeduz Zafar; and general manager General Butt, saying their decision was taken ‘in good faith’. However, this newspaper quotes the railways secretary Shakeel Durrani as saying: “Had I been chairman railways at that time, I would never have gone for such a deal.”
Apart from the rights and wrongs of this particular deal, these proceedings of the PAC reveal yet again just how far the military take-over of Pakistan has gone. Not only were three retired lieutenant generals running a single organisation, but the member of the subcommittee investigating such a serious scandal was also a retired army officer.
General Musharaf is fond of saying he believes in finding the right man for the right job. But how does he think ex-colleagues of his are qualified to run the railways? From personal experience, I can assure him that this is a highly technical area, requiring a lot of experience. Just as he would not induct a columnist to head an army division (with the possible exception of retired Captain Ayaz Amir), why should he expect an ex-general to be capable of running the railways?
But this is one of the problems of living under a military dispensation: just as a politician finds jobs for his voters, a dictator tries to find employment for his constituents to keep them happy. In today’s Pakistan, over a thousand retired and serving military officers are working in just about every civilian organisation. Corps commanders run the provinces they are posted in. Recently, it was reported that in Punjab, police officers threatened to resign en masse if yet more army personnel were inducted into their service.
Pakistan is now coming to resemble a vast military garrison: gigantic industrial empires, sprawling housing colonies, and an interlocking network of departments headed by military officers have come to occupy the commanding heights of the country. Supposedly, this has been done in the name of efficiency and clean government. But the reality is that this naked militarisation benefits only the officers involved in it. The people of Pakistan have gained nothing: on the contrary, they have watched helplessly as, yet again, their elected government was dismissed, their institutions destroyed and their Constitution trampled under the military jackboot.
Army officers tend to ignore criticism as petty carping from ‘those bloody civvies’. And yet, General Musharraf should be concerned about the growing distance between ordinary Pakistanis and the military. More and more, people are growing disgruntled with this quasi-colonisation of their country. And yet, these are the very people whose direct and indirect taxes sustain a defence budget that is viewed increasingly as a burden that gives little in return.
And while both the president and his handpicked prime minister trumpet the achievements of their government, it should be clearly understood that most of these flow from the aftermath of 9/11. Had the attacks in New York and Washington never happened, the Pakistani economy would be on its knees today.
As I mentioned last week, the primary goal of a dictatorship is to stay in power. In this, it is no different from an elected government, except for the fact that the latter has a fixed tenure before it faces the electorate again for a mandate. An army ruler has no departure date.
In such a scenario, he has to keep his electorate happy, and to do so, he hands out ambassadorships, plots, civilian jobs and patronage to serving and retired officers. And hence three retired generals are sent to run the railways.
Tailpiece: I have just learned that among many committees set up by the British Parliament is a Political Memoirs Committee. Just as well we don’t have one in Pakistan as it wouldn’t have much to do. However, given the fact that one man is calling the shots, the committees we do have are not exactly overworked.