If the prime
minister’s finance adviser thought that by living in denial he could allay
the widespread concerns about the army’s growing involvement in the
corporate sector he was gravely mistaken. In saying this, I am referring to
a report in your newspaper titled ‘Salman denies army role in corporate
sector’, and published on April 28.
If he did not know it, here is a partial list of the military’s corporate
enterprises as recently placed before the Parliament in reply to a question
besides the several dozen similar enterprises run by Shaheen Foundation and
Bahria Foundation of the Air Force and the Navy respectively.
Fauji Foundation : Fauji Sugar Mills, (more than one), Fauji Cereal, Fauji
Corn Complex, FONGAS (Natural gas supply company), Fauji Poly Propylene
Products, Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC), Fauji Jordan Company, Fauji
Cement, Fauji Oil Terminal Company Project (FOTCO), Fauji Kabirwala Power
Company Limited.
Army Welfare Trust: Askari Stud Farms, Askari Farms, Askari Welfare Rice
Mill, Askari Welfare Sugar Mill, Askari Fish Farm, Askari Cement (more than
one plant), Askari Welfare Pharmaceutical Project, Magnesite Refineries
Limited, Army Welfare Shoe Project, Army Welfare Woollen Mill, Army Welfare
Hosiery Unit, Travel Agencies, AWT Commercial Plazas, Army Welfare Shops,
Army Welfare Commercial Project, Askari Commercial Bank, Askari Leasing
Limited, Askari General Insurance Company, Askari Welfare Saving Scheme,
Askari Associate Limited, Askari Information Service, Askari Guards Limited,
Askari Power Limited, Askari Commercial Enterprises, Askari Aviation, Askari
Housing Schemes (at several locations)
The adviser claimed that retired military officers were involved in private
businesses and that too for welfare purposes but is the Fauji Foundation
really a private concern like any other.
Under its Scheme of Administration the Fauji Foundation is allowed “to
receive from government or other bodies or person any contribution to the
Foundation”. Which other private enterprise gets contributions from the
government also?
The Fauji Foundation is administered by a committee whose chairman is the
defense secretary and its members include four principal staff officers of
the GHQ and two senior officers of the Pakistan Navy and the Air Force, all
paid out of the public funds. A three star serving general was appointed in
2002 as its chief. What a fine example of a private enterprise run by
serving military officers and defense secretary.
During question hour in the Senate last year it transpired that the finance
ministry accepted loan liabilities of 9 billion rupees of the Foundation.
Which other private concern had been provided such a preferential treatment?
Worse still, after being declared ‘private’ they are declared as
unaccountable too. In reply to a question in the National Assembly in 2005
it transpired that the Khoski Sugar Mills belonging to the Foundation had
been sold at 300 million to an entity that had not even participated in the
bidding process. The highest bid of 387 million was ignored. When the Senate
Defence Committee asked the head of the Fauji Foundation, himself a former
chairman of NAB, to appear before it he refused and chose to refute the
allegations through newspaper ads. We were told to shut up.
If the FF and AWT are claimed to be private entities what are other entities
like the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) and the NLC doing in the private
commercial sector in a playing field that too is tilted in their favour?
According to information placed before the Senate on December 30, 2005 the
National Highway Authority (NHA) alone awarded twelve contracts costing over
18 billion to the FWO without bids between 2001 and 2005.
Further, not only the contract of collecting toll tax on toll plazas have
been given to FWO and NLC without bids but contracts already given to
private parties were cancelled and given to it according to information
placed before the Senate.
The military’s growing interests in corporate businesses and land has now
begun to attract national and international attention and criticism but we
are living in self-denial.
That was why the former British High Commissioner in Pakistan Mark Lyall
Grant publicly stated about two years ago in Islamabad that the military’s
corporate business interests had increased manifold. He also said that it
was hampering poverty reduction efforts and effectiveness of the bureaucracy
and judiciary in the country. An un-named senior official of the Foreign
Office promptly announced that a demarche had been served on the high
commissioner for his critical remarks as ‘unwarranted and inaccurate besides
being an infringement of diplomatic norms’. But that did not change the
reality.
Are the defence housing authorities also really private bodies competing
with other private entities in a level playing filed? Is there any other
private housing society that is headed by a serving corps commander and
whose executive functionaries such as the Administrator are serving senior
army officers drawing salary from public exchequer? Is there any other
private housing authority that can get land at a price as the DHA Karachi
got sometime back and against which the provincial government even moved the
court?
During question hour in Parliament it has transpired that military officers
get one after 15 years of service, a second one after 25, a third one after
28 years and a fourth one after 33 years of service each worth more than 15
million rupees in the open market. To call it a welfare activity is
stretching the meaning of the word a bit too far.
The un-level playing field to the military’s industrial and commercial
enterprises, the dispossession of tenants from farmlands in Okara belonging
to the Punjab government, the acquisition of additional 870 acres of prime
land in sector E-10 at dirt cheap price of Rs 200 per acre for the new GHQ
(in addition to the 1470 acres already earmarked), the setting up of strings
of defense housing authorities, first in Karachi and Lahore and lately in
Islamabad, and converting state lands meant specifically for defense
purposes into golf courses and housing colonies as disclosed in the
Parliament are clear manifestations of military’s growing corporate and real
estate business. The issue will not disappear merely be denying it.
Come on Mr Adviser! Instead of living in a state of denial let us address
the issue and do something about it.
The writer is a former PPP senator and a member of the Senate’s human rights
committee. Email:
drkhshan@isb.comsats.net.pk
