Nazia Nazar
An article was published on Indian news website “The Quartz” on 20th November 2017 titled “Inside Pakistan’s biggest business conglomerate: the Pakistan military.” The article is written by an Indian General Kamal Davar, who through this article has made an attempt to tarnish the image of Pakistan Armed Forces for their involvement in business activities. The US, India and a few countries many not acknowledge; however the world at large is aware about Pakistan Armed Forces exemplary professionalism displayed in the ongoing war on terror. The hard life, which usually a soldier faces, drains his energies at a much faster pace as compared to civilians. Moreover, soldiery requires a young, energetic, physically fit and mentally alert individual to serve the challenging profession. As a result, the soldiers have to be retired at very early age, and their average retiring age is 36 years – an age at which a civilian starts his carrier.
If a soldier retires at an average age of 36 years, how can he survive only on pension in this challenging economic environment? Moreover, he at this age is only trained for soldiery and cannot join any other profession, as he has already crossed the age of adopting other careers. In the absence of government policy to rehabilitate veteran soldiers, Armed Forces themselves rose to the occasion by initiating welfare initiatives. Since all the business-oriented activities are purely for the welfare of serving and retired officers and soldiers and their families; hence these should be termed as welfare initiatives and not business activities. These welfare-oriented organizations are mostly administered by the veterans with the help of professionals; therefore the arguments of the critics at home and abroad, are totally baseless that the business activities are being undertaken by the armed forces. Unfortunately, some pedantic writers and analysts provide the basis for criticizing military.
Ayesha Siddiqa, the author of the book titled ‘Military Inc. – Inside Pakistan’s military economy’ published in 2007, had given concocted and exaggerated figures about commercial organizations owned by Fauji Foundation, Bahria Foundation or under any other denomination. In fact, Army Welfare Trust was established in 1954 when Pakistan received the compensation for those killed or maimed during the 2nd World War. The money was judicially invested and the survivors were regularly paid out of the profits from the amount invested. The author stated that “Fauji Foundation had invested in agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors to dominate corporate sector.” The truth of the matter is that out of 75 banks, only one bank i.e. Askari Bank, out of 24 cement plants only 1 plant, and out of ten Fertilizer companies the foundation owns just one. Anyhow, the total investment in the corporate sector by these organizations is 0.7 per cent of the entire investment.
In fact, she had reproduced the details of the enterprises by the Fauji Foundation and Bahria Foundation that were given in the book titled ‘Pakistan Provinces’ published in 2004 by the Strategic Foresight Group, which unarguably is the arm of the Indian RAW. It has to be mentioned that Army Welfare Trust was started with a modest asset base, and after six decades of investments in various fields, it stands out amongst the business leaders. It is a story of perseverance, innovation, business acumen and going beyond the frontiers in Insurance, Aviation, CNG, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Sugar, Lubricants, Real Estate, Security Solutions and many other diverse fields. These investments will go a long way in consolidating the national economy of Pakistan. Detractors of military do not realize that officers and jawans of the armed forces lay down their lives during war to protect the country’s frontiers and of course during the war against terrorism or anarchic conditions as well.
They save the lives of the citizens during earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. On the other hand, political leaders simply issue statements from their safe abodes. They should acknowledge the sacrifices made by the military so that they could live without trepidation and fear. The portal on defence and geopolitics under the name of Terminal X has summed up the contribution made by the organizations run by Army Welfare Fund, Fauji Foundation etc. It stated: “Several army organizations performed functions that were important to the civilian sector across the country. For example, the National Logistics Cell was responsible for trucking food and other goods across the country; the Frontier Works Organization built the Karakoram Highway to China, the Makran Coastal Highway; flood relief operations etc., and the Special Communication Organization maintained communications networks in remote parts of Pakistan”.
The army welfare organization and other commercial institutions created by it are also engaged in extensive economic activities and performed functions beneficial to the local civilian economy. The factories of Fauji Foundation and other organizations produced such goods as sugar, fertilizer, and brass castings and sold them to civilian consumers. Through these activities, military is helping the government by generating funds and employment opportunities for the retired military personnel as well as general public, and contributing to the nation exchequer in the form of income tax, sales tax and other taxes. In other words, military has taken a part of the burden of the government, and deserves appreciation and not condemnation. It is unfortunate that Pakistani media does not counter the propaganda from enemies and detractors of Pakistan.
