A. D. Stangal

Pakistan'santi-corruption watch-dog the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) hasinitiated proceedings against retired four-star General Ahsan Saleem Hayat andsenior officials of a logistics organization. The allegation against him was that he was running an illegal crude oilbusiness that caused a loss of Rs. PKR 20 million per day to the nationalexchequer.  The case of running illegalcrude oil business had led to dismissal of 17 officers by the military authoritieson January 26, 2005.  Another case againstEx- Major Akaram Raza was filed for running illegal oil business.  Raza petitioned in 2015 before the LahoreHigh Court (LHC) that he was a 'whistle blower' and not a party to the crimeand that National Logistics Cell (NLC) administration kept on pressurizing himto cooperate with the crude oil mafia and failing which threatened with direconsequences.  The LHC directed the NAB  in 2019 to proceed in this case in accordancewith the law.

Theepisodes of corruption cases against the officials of Pak armed forces arecropping up one by one.  The recent(March 2022) leak of data from Credit Swiss, a Swiss investment bank, has againbrought to the light the extent to which greed and corruption run amok in thePakistan Army, especially among the Generals. A report from the bank has implicated the Ex-ISI Chief, General AkhtarAbdur Rehman Khan, who reportedly helped funnel billions of dollars, in cashand other aid from the United States and other countries to the Mujahedeen inAfghanistan to support their fight against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.  The Times of Israel claimed that the leakeddocuments touch only the tip of the icebergs as far as how much the topGenerals of the Pakistan Army skimmed in the name of the Holy War against theSoviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Thereport asserted that the motto of the Pakistan army officers seems to be"Greed is God".   There areinnumerable scandals and sordid stories of the financial bungling, bribery,extortion, influence peddling by serving and retired Generals for personalprofit.  There are also reports of theirinvolvement in smuggling rackets and narcotic trafficking.

Itis not new.  In the 1990s, then ArmyChief Aslam Beg and ISI Chief Asad Durrani proposed to start their ownnarcotics business to fund the 'jihad' against India and in Afghanistan, asalso other parts of the world.  It issuspected that many Pakistani Generals and bureaucrats have had secret SwissBank accounts with some of these accounts getting closed later because themoney was either moved elsewhere or invested in business or property. Thereport cited the example of General Rehman's sons who are one of the richestfamilies in Pakistan with vast business interests.  Another example is Army Chief General AshfaqKiyani's brothers involved in a multi-billion rupee housing scandal inIslamabad.

Aquetta corps commander Lt. Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa was called by the name"General Papa Jones" or "General Pizza" after an expose ofhis millions of dollar investment in Papa Jones Pizza Chain in the US and lucrativecontract given to his son while he was serving as the head of Inter ServicePublic Relations (IBPR).  Same kind ofallegations had been posted against a former army chief Raheel Sharif andGeneral Pervez Musharraf for amassing illegal property by using their clout.

Pakistanstate has three power centres namely, the elected government, the Armed forcesand Pak intelligence agency, the ISIS, all of them claiming that they couldsacrifice everything for the country. Reality is that they have together sacrificed their own 'conscience' and'character' on one hand and people's interest on the other.  The Pakistan state is an agglomeration ofunscruputlous interest groups which are more interested in extracting personalrentals from power, while Pak people are being denied even the basic minimum needsof life. Jihad has become a veil under which all the powerful people includingstate and non-state actors in Pakistan are betraying their own people.  The economy is on the verge of collapse anddemocracy is under threat due to conflict among the power centres.  Imran Khan is on the exit door.  Who comes next in the reign in the state,which is waiting to fail, is being watched with curiosity. However, it isdoubtful that things would change as long as state is not separated from theinfluence of armed forces and the ISI.