A Vision of United India

Chapter 6

The obstacles to the unification of India and Pakistan

In this part of the book, we shall try to identify the obstacles to the unification of the subcontinent. Undoubtedly the chief obstacle is the institution of the Army in Pakistan. The people of Pakistan seem to show a keenness to work together with India, particularly in matters concerning trade and culture, but it is the Army and its offshoots like the ISI that have a vested interest in the perpetuation of the division.

The Army in Pakistan

We now take a look into the functioning of the Pakistani Army. The Pakistani nation has for the most part of its history been under military rule; it has not been able to evolve a system of civilian rule such as is there in most other nations of the world. This, by itself, is a clear proof of the falsehood that Pakistan is a nation, a real psychological unit. It has needed Army rule to keep the nation together. But much worse is the fact that the Army is not doing what it pretends to do — hold the nation together. On the contrary, it has become one of the worst exploiters of the Pakistani people and society.

Pakistan today is held together by a powerful military that directly consumes a very large portion of its budget after debt payments. The military has gained strength by opportunistically aligning itself with the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. It has directly ruled the country for most of its history and has cultivated relations with the fundamentalist Islamist clergy to strengthen its hold. In fact, the military is a bastion of Islamists who are influenced by fundamentalist movements such as Wahabism and Deobandism -- the same movements that hold sway among large numbers of Pakistani Punjabis.

Here is one article on the Armed Forces of Pakistan. Pakistan's Armed Forces by Maj (retd) Zahid Yazdanie, Irvine, CA

"The armed forces in Pakistan always acted like a holy cow. Nobody ever dared to bring out the real worth of the Pakistan armed forces. Outsiders only knew them as someone too sacred to be discussed. Today, we are in a mess because of this protectionist attitude. The armed forces have gradually eaten up the national resources and never left anything for social services. It is just a matter of time when Pakistani currency will go to hyper inflation like Russia and Indonesia and the dollar will trade at Rs 100 /dollar. The prices of commodities will jump through the roof. And rampages (like the one in Peshawar) will follow in all parts and organizations in Pakistan.

Pakistan's armed forces always deliberately created a false security threat for Pakistani politicians. They emphasized a bigger defense budget, a bigger force, more equipment and

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thus better and more secure Pakistan. Unfortunately, all the politicians played into this created security threat scenario. Nobody ever realized that strength is actually in the economy

If we calculate all the resources spent on the armed forces in the last 30 years, take out 50% of it and spend on infrastructure, industry, agriculture and social services, Pakistan today would have been totally debt free, prosperous and definitely with strong and much better armed forces.

It would be better now to put the immense human resources of the army to some national use. It would be wise to use them to develop agricultural farms on uncultivated lands. It is possible for our army to develop about 100,000 farms of 12 acres each complete with all amenities, including a small manufactured home. These farms can then be sold to millions of low income families on an installment basis".

Our forces are responsible for bringing Pakistan to this sorry state of affairs. It is now their responsibility to review their whole role and to start playing an active role in the national economy.

Here is another example of how the Army is looting the people of Pakistan.

A first hand list of Army land lords Special SAT Report BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan: Pakistani Army Generals, including President Pervez Musharraf and his top colleagues, have found an innovative way to defend the land of their country — by grabbing it.

SA Tribune has got a list of over 100 armed forces men who allotted to themselves at least 400 or more acres of prime land in Bahawalpur, heart of Punjab, "to defend it from the enemy," at the throw away rate of Rs 380 per acre (US Dollars Six & 50 cents). The list is only of one District. Such lists exist all over Punjab and Sindh where a new breed of landlords has already been created through similar allotments.

These fertile lands were given to the serving and retired generals on the pretext that these army generals will "prove a front line against the invading army." The centuries old British colonial law to settle locals near enemy border was invoked by these army men to grab the lands. But instead of taking lands close to the border, they took away prime heartland acres, thousands of them, in the name of defending the country.

The price they paid was Rs 380 an acre was notional but many of them sold the land making millions. Others have become feudal lords in their own right by employing landless peasant to till these land and produce key crops. This list has been prepared with the help of land revenue record of the district of Bahawalpur by local activists of Nationalist Qaumi Movement, a group fighting for the rights of the local people.

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This conversion of generals into landlords also explains why no serious effort has been made by the military to introduce land reforms in the country, which could cure many political and social imbalances in the Pakistani society.

The list includes the names and the area (Chak) where the land (400 acres or more) is located.

http://www.pakistanweekly.com/Letters.htm

Here is another instance from a letter written by a citizen of Pakistan to the Pakistan web site:

Dear Sir,

May God bless you and others like you who have launched a crusade against the conspiratorial and corrupt Generals of Pakistan. In Pakistan, the Army is the only self-sufficient institution. It owns from Dairy Farms to huge Industries. This is unique about Pak. Army. Nowhere else in the world does the Army run businesses and Banks. The army officers get milk and butter from the Army dairy farms, chicken from Army poultry farms, Clean and pressed clothes from Army Laundries, Very Cheap electricity from the M.E.S, which is supplied by WAPDA), Lands grabbed from the Provincial Governments, Free and top of the class Health facilities from the C.M.H. and their children get the best education free of charge in Army and P.A.F. educational Institutions. In every city a line divides the poor and the well to do; i.e. the shabby municipal limits and the posh Cantonments. The generals distribute the lands in cantonments amongst themselves at throwaway prices. Why can't these lands be sold in Auction to pay away the debt of the country? These allotments are in addition to the hundreds of Acres of land, which every General gets upon promotion from the rank of a Brigadier. What to speak of the lands they get on 23rd of March with the Medals bestowed upon them by their colleagues. They get these Medals without a fight. And we all know their calibre during wars. We have lost all wars fought to date courtesy our Corrupt Army. This is not a Mafia, it is actually a Cartel and till the time this hydra headed monster is sorted out the country will bleed and the people will remain impoverished even if Angels come to rule Pakistan.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=27859526

Pak army siphoning off US aid in Swiss accounts

While Pakistani political parties are still fighting as to who would head the civilian government, Selig Harrison, an American expert on South Asian affairs, has said that the military rule in Pakistan would continue indefinitely with the generals putting more and more money in Swiss Bank accounts and buying off civilian leaders. "The only way to make things better in Pakistan would be a change in

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American policy and the use of American economic aid leverage to push Musharraf towards civilian rule as condition for US aid. However, I don't see that happening," added Harrison, senior scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Centre. He was addressing a conference demanding human rights protection and a fair share of resources for Sindhi people here on Saturday. "I don't think the armed forces want a war. They are too busy making money. If there is a war, it won't be confined to Kashmir. Sindh will be in the front lines. So, it's certainly in the interest of Sindhis to work with the other forces in Pakistan favouring an end to Pakistani support for Islamic militant incursions into Kashmir," Harrison noted.

From the Indian Express Monday Jan 8 2002:

Pakistan has a "very narrow social base of the ruling elite. Pakistan is ruled by four interest groups or their coalition: military, bureaucracy, the feudal lords and the industrial barons. Making up the nucleus of these four interest groups, it is believed, are a dozen corps commanders, nearly 2,000 landlords owning more than half the cultivable land, a cadre of nearly 1,000 officers and less than 50 industrial families. It is they who own Pakistan and rule in the name of the people."

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