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Many analysts are now accusing the Pakistani military for developing strong commercial interests to create an oligarchy of serving and retired officers to control banks, transport, road building, communication, and construction businesses worth billions of dollars. Nearly 1200 retired officials and soldier foundations operate a private airline, hundreds of educational institutions, large old economy projects such as power plants, steel and cement factories, and even own consumer goods including sugar, electronic items, and breakfast cereals.
Unnamed sources accuse those who operate these businesses worked with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate and the extremist Islamist
organizations to train, arm and motivate mujahideen cadres to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan through the 1980s. They accuse them of facilitating the installation of the Taliban in Kabul . It is alleged that military leaders have appropriated large tracts of hugely expensive urban land at throwaway prices to establish grandiose housing colonies for soldiers and themselves. In a recent articles in The Dawn, columnist Ayaz Amir concluded that Pakistan now has a “corporate military” which is “more into things commercial, especially real estate, than anything as dull as prosaic as mere soldiering and fighting.”
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Analysts say that taking a page out of Chinese military practices, Pakistani military business interests can be classified into three categories-- the ones controlled by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), those that are military ordnance factories, and those that are defense ministry-owned armament factories. Besides 4 “charitable” trusts operate as private corporations run by serving and former servicemen and own factories and manufacturing units producing a range of goods and services.
The National Highway Authority (NHA) and the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) is under the direct control of the COAS which, aided by the Army’s Engineering corps and besides other nation projects, built the Karakoram
Highway in 1980s connecting Pakistan to its ally China. Supported by the Signal
Corps, the National Logistics Cell runs a nation-wide trucking company which was
originally setup by late 1970s to transfer assault rifles and Stinger missiles
supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the port in Karachi to
so-called “Mujahideen” fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan . These trucks
later helped the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to supply the Taliban with weapons, fuel, and food. On return trips back from Afghanistan , they would carry back heroin from laboratories along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to Karachi so it can be shipped to the West.
Apparently, the “Fauji (Soldier) Foundation” is a USD 500 million enterprise with a net profit of USD 41 million that runs cement, power, and sugar factories to re-settle and re-employ 9 million retired army personnel. It has granted retired soldiers land in villages along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan so fighting population is readily available if hostilities break out.
To divert attention from such unethical practices, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says that the “worst case scenario” is that Pakistan will be “no more” if extremists wrests control over moderates like him and his Army.
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