Some Burning Questions

December 20, 2002

General Pervez Musharraf,
Chief of Army Staff,
Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Dear Sir:

When I was young, I used to ponder that why did we call the Alexander of Macedonia, “Alexander the Great” (Sikandar-e-Azam)? Ok, he was smart and knew the art of warfare, but did his military conquests alone [the sole reason I was repeatedly told for his “azmat”] qualify him for the title “great” as well? For me, greatness demanded far nobler virtues and worthier traits than [or in addition to] mere bloodletting. Then one day, I stumbled upon a short poem “Ek behri Qazzak aur Sikandar -- A Sea Robber and Alexander “ of Allama Iqbal, and thereby got my objections validated and queries answered.

Sikandar (Alexander):

Silla tera teri zanjeer ya shamsheer hai meri
Keh teri rah-zanni se tang hai darya kee pahnai!

Qazzak (Sea Robber or Pirate):

Sikandar! haif too is ko jawan-mardi samajhta hai
Gawara is tarah karte hain ham-chashmon kee ruswai?
Tera pesha hai saffaki, mera pesha hai saffaki
Keh ham Qazzak hain dono, too medani, main daryaee!

Historical discussion aside, the same analogy is convincingly applicable once again -- now on generals and politicians of Pakistan. Parallels between these two are frighteningly discernible, similarities incredibly prominent. To tell the truth, politicians and generals, both are despicable robbers -- in different robes. Some don sherwanis, other dress in khaki. Both are equally unscrupulous and just as hell-bent to accumulate personal wealth, only procedure and mode differ. In fact, two faces of the same coin. The whole drama is about power, perks and number of plots. Welfare of the masses is not an issue for either group.

Sir, with reference to the huge properties and unfathomable riches of our generals, sham accountability, your favourite hobby of politician bashing, and not the least the ongoing horse-trading, one can only wonder, what a grotesque definition of patriotism, bizarre standards of honesty, and weird benchmarks of morality, we must have in the land of the pure?

Imagine, if seven prime plots in seven cities, while more than 40% of the population grinds under abject poverty, is not corruption then what else can be? Strange, Crore-Commanders on one hand, 13 % infant mortality rate on the other, still treachery to question the integrity and judiciousness of the top brass. World-class recreational facilities for the kith and kin of the military officers, not even clean drinking water (what to talk about other basic necessities of daily life) for the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis, yet generals have no moral qualms.

You see, in the absence of “Constitutional Housing Schemes” and the sort, politicians [can only] gobble through illegal means. Moreover, for obvious reasons, it is a rather difficult task for easy-to-access civilians to conceal their ill-gotten possessions. Besides, the military makes sure that a civilian batch of thieves would have at the most 30 –36 months to go berserk with their looting spree [mercifully somewhat containing their impact].

In the case of generals, it is nevertheless a double jeopardy. They not only devour by means of ‘by-the-book’ bonanzas for 10 –20 years [time span from the rank of brigadier till disappearing off the skies] but also concurrently embezzle as much as possible. A trivial illustration: while accruing ‘legal’ booty worth more than a billion, thanks to the web of wealth-generating mechanisms for high ranking military officers, Mansoorul Haq was at the same time working overtime minting money by kickbacks, commissions, fraud and cheating. Therefore, a terse [and sarcastic] deduction would be that the loot by civilians costs less to the country than the multi-prong sweep by their uniformed counterparts.

Sir, if the Caliph of the time could be audited in public by a beduin for a piece of cloth, I deem myself fully competent, authorised and justified to ask you as follows:

(i) My son doesn’t get as little as a few tablets of Paracetamol after having queued for hours and endured endless humiliation at public hospitals. For your son there are helicopter ambulances, luxurious VVIP wards at well-equipped military hospitals [strictly out of bound for common man] -- free of cost. Why this callous discrimination against innocent Pakistani civilian children – in their own homeland? General sahib, my son demands an answer.

(ii) Barn for cattle at military farms are generally better furnished than the government school of my daughter. And, she is lucky that she has at least a school, be in rubbles, to go to -- more than 50% of her civilian age-fellows don’t have even this symbolic consolation either. In contrast, your daughter’s birthrights include O-Level at sumptuous Army Public Schools on highly subsidized rates. Sir, my girl holds you and your fellow officers responsible for this malevolent disparity. What should I tell her?

(iii) 90% civilian children don’t have access to decent playgrounds, but for your kids the state provides thoroughbred stallions and instructors for riding. A pointer: 140 million ‘ordinary’ Pakistanis have fewer swimming pools available to them than the sports centres exclusively on the disposal of officers of the armed forces. [I can substantiate this claim with exact figures]

(iv) My old frail father toils in scorching heat to make the ends meet, to pay the ever-swelling utility bills in time, you write off millions of rupees, due from your defaulting chums, as it was your dad’s property. One fresh glaring example: Wasim Sajjad. Why?

(v) Billions of rupees from the national exchequer were shamelessly frittered away on that lousy referendum, just for appeasing your unconstitutional ambitions. An exercise, “the heaviest ever mandate”, no one gives a damn to. Doesn’t the hard-earned money of my husband and taxpayers like him deserve a bit more respect and a better use? Before I forget, how free and fair the referendum was if the Election Commission has to straight away [and illicitly] destroy all the records on your orders? Would you kindly elaborate this unmatched urgency?

For God sake, now don’t come up with those worn out, classical arguments of facing hardships on the borders, defending Pakistan to the peril of your lives and so forth. We have had enough of these obtuse excuses and are thoroughly fed-up of this all-purpose monologue. It has been delivered far too many times and has already lost most, if not all, of its allure. No more emotional blackmailing, please.

Consider. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 136 out of 1000 newly born babies die before the age of five in Pakistan. How many officers out of every 1000 passed-out from the PMA embrace martyrdom in the line of duty? Empirically, not even 1, in particular during last three decades. Thus, probability is not even one percent. So, tell me: what is more, much more perilous and a deadlier mission in Pakistan: to take birth as a civilian or to take commission in the defence forces? You know, the most repulsive of all is that those, who in reality do face the enemy bullets i.e., jawans, NCOs and JCOs are not much better off either. No less than 50000 of them are orderlies – euphemism for slave – polishing shoes, making beds of the officers.

Conversely, do you have any idea that scores of Pakistani children scavenge rubbish for recyclables for their living; innumerable chotas are sweating across the country to survive? Surely, you don’t. How can you? Tinted glasses of your bulletproof armoured limousines have rendered you blind. Sir, we don’t live in same Pakistan. Your defence housing societies are not at all a part of the Pakistan we dwell in. Your secluded garrisons have nothing to do with the mainstream society – being crushed under unexplainable hardships.

What a disgrace to our nationhood, what a disrespect of humanity? By the way, do we celebrate August 14 as our independence day? Shouldn’t we instead term it “Replacement Day”, the day when brown local military officers took over from the white Britons? Today, Pakistanis are being held prisoners, not by outsiders but by their own military.

Well, lets proceed to the institutional level:

(i) How do you explain that a professor holding a Doctorate -- who started teaching at a public university 35 years back, before you joined the army -- is not entitled to a single residential plot whereas the property you have amassed-- squarely due to your military service -- is worth hundreds of millions rupees?

(ii) How come a brigadier in the army has more perks and privileges than the Chief Justice of Pakistan (his tamely churning out of order-made indemnifying verdicts notwithstanding).

(iii) Why a senior surgeon serving in a government hospital doesn’t get a fraction of monetary rewards as compared to what a GOC grabs without doing anything productive at all?

(iv) What does a police officer get from the state, despite risking his life, putting up with abuses and curses of the public on daily basis (and quite often flouting the law at the behest of the junta), in relation to good-for-nothing military officers?

(v) Where in the world, a FA or at the most BA passed supervisor/foreman in a security firm is multi-millionaire, by default, on his retirement, entirely because of his job?

(vi) Which government service, irrespective of tenure, academic qualifications and/or assignments, in the entire region of South Asia, results in comparable amount of financial gains than that of military career in Pakistan? What extraordinary, the military of Pakistan accomplishes to deserve the amazing remunerations?

My lord, perhaps, to rub salt in our wounds, you keep on chanting [hollow] mantra of merit and honesty, brag about fulfilling promises, and vow not letting us down while disgustingly doling out billions from secret funds for buying loyalties of ‘patriots’. What does the Staff College train you for, with the exception of hypocrisy, horse-trading and bribing?

Sir, I challenge you to refute any one of my assertions. I will never ever lift my pen again, if proved wrong. Here comes a convenient shortcut to gauge the authenticity of the facts provided here. Just make your generals and lieutenant generals declare their chattels [as ‘corrupt’ civilian legislators have already done]. Execute me publicly, for treason, if a single soul among them possesses military-conferred fortune valued less than US$ 450, 000 [in the land with per capita income of paltry US$ 450].

While we’re on the subject, a humble reminder: it is a question of basic most decency and elementary ethics that those [thankfully, finally] chastising crooks for accumulating assets beyond their known sources of income and misuse of authority, should not vacillate about presenting their own inventory. The ex-Chairman, National Accountability Bureau, NAB [and incumbent governor Punjab] Lt General Khalid Maqbool and NAB’s current chief Lieutenant General Munir Hafiez have neither backbone nor uprightness to come clean.

Please note, the ill-deeds of civilian politicians are already well-known to us. Their immorality doesn’t mean carte blanche for the military to tear apart the social, political and cultural fabric of the nation. Two wrongs seldom, if ever make a right. Enumerating the sins and shortcomings of the civilians, as you are very fond of doing, would at best circumvent the points I have raised, not absolve you in any sense. Straightforward, to the point replies; not obfuscating peripheral rant is what I am begging for.

To wind up, I would like to tell you clearly and frankly, the Raiwind Palace, the Surrey Mansion or the Beg Villa, all symbolise utmost filth – alike. To us, the Pakistani “Sudras”, these CMHs, Army Public Schools, Officer Messes, stand for social apartheid – nothing more.

Yours obedient servant,

Nighat Yasmeen
Sargodha

Footnote:

I have no doubt whatsoever that your holier-than-thou PR staff would have never let this letter appear on your table. Easily understandable, they are handsomely rewarded just for selling their conscience on your behalf; not to apprise you about the bitter ground realities. Therefore, I am left with no choice but to use alternative forums for putting across incensed sentiments of the general public. Hopefully, you get a whiff of them.

I am pretty sure that few among top brass would agree to my viewpoints – regardless of the sagacity and the veracity of the arguments. Of course not. How can they? When they themselves are the major beneficiaries of this [ongoing] plunder and make the main characters of the sordid spoof that have been going on [for duping the masses since 50s]. It appears that the moral courage and the professional integrity required for admitting the unfavourable facts, and confessing one’s own shortcomings are not the traits highly admired in our martial-cum-palatial offices.

Thanks Almighty, Pakistanis have at last started waking up and getting acquainted to the true obnoxious face of the high command of the military. Ostensibly there is absolute no appreciation at the GHQ that the discontent with the military has grown to unprecedented level, image of the top brass has been badly tarnished in all sections of the society. Public impression and official perception of the state of affairs is totally out of step with each other.

Moreover, I am well aware of the fact that, a meek undertaking like this one cannot bring about any significant change and hence doesn’t matter at all, at least in the short term. Not my concern. One ought to be primarily interested in executing his/her part of national, social and religious duty – not the immediate results.

To quote Bush & Co., “doing nothing is not an option”. If nothing else, I am registering my utmost disapproval and sheer indignation for the state of affairs. The main aim is to convey what I, along with a very rapidly growing number of the countrymen, have started conceiving and believing in. My firm belief is that failing to raise voice against injustices is akin to complicity, and until we don’t speak – loudly, we will remain oppressed. And uttering uncomfortable and unpleasant truth, to stand up against usurpers and injustices is what jihad-e-akbar all about.

Let me clarify that no patriotic Pakistani can have any ill wills against our armed forces as an institution. Exactly the same is valid for our feelings towards jawans and junior officers – 95 % of the total strength. We know that they are merely pawns in the dirty games of their senior most commanders. They are simply doing and dying without questioning why – exactly as they are supposed to do. Laying down their lives in a misconception that they are serving the nation whereas in reality being exploited by the GHQ for quenching the greed of some individuals at the top. These poor souls are almost as hapless victims of the shenanigans of the generals as the rest of the nation. The real rot lies with the policy-making star officers.

Doubting my patriotism and/or declaring me Indian agent would solve nothing. Addressing the core issue and tackling the brewing revulsion against the last viable and respected organ of the state must be the first priority. Otherwise, keep my words: only a matter of time that people will spit on your faces and kick your butts around.