Again, Desperate Times

We all know the story about the coming of wolf.

Now let`s try another example someone calls out dinner is served, people lift their bodies from the TV lounge to the dining hall anticipating to be fed. However, what they get is laughs and claps but no food. Do this a cuple of times and they will stop responding to the call for food. But if there is no other source of food, and the kitchen is a vault guarded by armed militia, some of them will be drawn to the teasing call likes moths to a flame. Starvation will fuel their hope like foliage fuels wild fire. Need makes you naive, naivette fuels hope. To survive you need food, to get food you need hope--in this example only.

The situation in Pakistan is similar. What option is there but to be hopeful ? What if this is the chef that will finally feed us. What if he is the wolf that will eat the rats. Or the mouse that will bell the cat. Or whatever metaphor suits your fancy to get the point that I think you have already gotten.

My assessment is that he is our man. I will go as far as saying that our nation has waited a long time for a man like him. Zia and Ayub were different as were the circumstances during their rule. Musharraf is man markedly different from Zia, Ayub and Yahya. He has the same tendency to be corrupted by power as the next human being, but he has lot more character to fight that urge. And this man I beleive is not afraid and he talks straighter and more sensibly than anyone else we have had at the helm.

Yes he has inducted old timers into his cabinet who have served every other military regime. The servants are not at fault here though, other than they are good servants, they will faithfully carry out what the masters tell them and they have the experience and expertise to get it done. When the master say do evil they will do evil, when the master says do good they will do good.

Fresher entries may has purer records but not the ability to squeeze results out of really clanky machinery.

The man at the top is what matters. There is no way his immediate sub-ordiantes can stray, but it will take him sometime to get down to bribe sucking patwari.

Happy New Year everyone.

Interesting discussion about the living standards of army officers. I generally agree with Umairr`s view`s and those of some others. The vast majority of army officers below general rank live a hand-to-mouth existence. The Pakistan Army takes excellent care of its red-tabbers, to be more precise, its gold-tabbers but Umairr is correct when he says that this is a very small minority of officers.

My information is some years old but I believe that approximately 40-50% of Army officers do not make it past major rank. In contrast to this, even the most brain-dead and incompetent civil service jackass makes it to joint secretary (Brigadier equivalent) and if he is even remotely competent, Additional Secretary (Major General equivalent). Army officers, even the least intellectually gifted ones, have to continually take promotion exams Lt-Capt, and Capt-Maj. Staff College (a year long degree course at Quetta) is an absolute must for anyone who wants to make it past Lt. Col. and the War Course (another year long degree course at Rawalpindi, oops, they`ve moved to Islamabad) is another must if you want to make it to Maj. Gen.

I have family and friends in both the Army and the Civil Service and I can tell you categorically that the civil service is an unbelievably cushy life compared to the Army: for the risks involved, the perks are far superior.

Life is much easier for army officers in the services (Ordnance, ASC--though they do have Animal Transport Regiments up in the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir and thats no picnic--, EME). The corruption opportunities are excellent for Ordnance and ASC officers if they are posted to DGDP or DMP or in Local Purchase of supplies--but again, these are a tiny percentage of all army officers. Same goes if an officer is posted to Rangers or Coast Guards--but I knew many officers there who were honest.

In contrast to this, all Customs, Police, Income Tax, and so on, officers take a huge extra-legal payoff home each month. (I apologize to the one or two honest ones I am maligning as I actually personally knew a few honest Police officers but they had large independent incomes--jagirs.)

Life for all PAF and PN officers is far easier than that for the average Army officer. For one thing, far more of them make it to higher ranks since both of these institutions are much top-heavier than the Army. The PN is absolutely ridiculous: some times it seems that every fifth naval officer one sees is a commodore or an admiral. Base facilities are much better for PN and PAF officers as well.

Again agreeing with Umairr, if an officer could be posted to the Gulf or Libya, then his financial future was secured but this really only happened in the late 1970s and 1980s. By the time of the Gulf War, we no longer had two armoured divisions in Saudi and we no longer ran the UAE and Kuwaiti Air Forces (at least the latter`s maintenance--never met a Buddhu who could tell his arse from his elbow--apologies to Jordanians and Palestinians who are competent but then Palestinians are not Buddhus).

In response to an issue raised by Bilal Ahmed, the sons/daughters of most army officers do pretty well in all the moving around as far as making friends at school goes. I know that my cousins and brothers/sisters kept meeting the same faces over and over again as we made the rounds of every-God forsaken military cantonment in Pakistan. We were luckier than most in that we (comparatively) did not spend that much time out in the boonies. I know friends/cousins who spent more time living in their grandparents homes with their mothers than with both parents at home.

Regards.

Umaairr # 570 (Mian & Nayyar)

Okay Umair Saheb, what do you think about the following item in Dawn of 3 Jan, 2000 (excerpts):

[ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been advised to seek services of legal experts to find out whether the government should file an appeal in the Supreme Court to re-open the case against former Ehtesab chief, Saifur Rehman, and Pakistan Customs for clearing 25 under-invoiced BMW cars in 1995-98.

This advice has been given in an interim report sent by CBR to the Prosecutor General`s office of the NAB. The report has been prepared by a committee of five Customs officers. The comittee was set up in November, 1999..... The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, had dismissed the case finding Redco-BMW Pakistan Ltd and Pakistan Customs not guilty in clearing these cars.

The interim report concludes its findings as follows: During the course of investigations of records, no tangible evidence was found against Redco-BMW.

The case-file was reopened by the CBR on instructions from the military government.]

Now, certainly I have no interest either in convincing you of the manipulative influence of propoganda and propagindists with which/whom you regretably are enamored in a simplistic manner, however the subject of corruption or otherwise of the Nawaz Sharif team is vital in understanding what is happening in Pakistan at the moment, for the benefit of other chowkwallahs. One must look into details and read between the lines instead of believing all that is presented to the visual senses.

The synopsis of the above news report is: The High Court had thrown out the case against Saif-ur-Rehman and Redco. The military junta, after the coup, assigned a committee of five officials of Central Board of Revenue to dig out some way in which the case could be reopened in the Supreme Court in an appeal. The comittee, despite the fact that Saif-ur-Rehman is in Jail alongwith his boss so obviously no political influence from their side, still reported that there was no case against them and the military govt should hire expert lawyers to try to pin something on the accused.

If I was the Federal Information Minister, I could get any newspaper in the country to print extensive investigative reports claiming that UmairR is in fact Santa Claus´ ... and people will believe that too ! Judicial enquiries and comittee findings are nevertheless quite another matter.

As for BBC, they´re an independant organisation and agreed to run the documentary prepared by the ex-chief of FIA in PPP Govt. for the sake of fairness because they ran a documentary on Zardari too. BBC does not take the responsibilty of confirming the veracity of each item it runs and the views presented are not necesarily their own. It´s upto the viewer to arrive at their own judgement taking all factors into account.

As for me, I have no personal axe on the grind. It´s true I´m one of the very few who believes in NS & Cos innocence as far as these corruption charges are concerned, but then again history has shown the most widely held opinions more likely to be absurd and the Truth has always been persecuted.

In response to Fuzair (Reply # 572)

Dear Fuzair:

In your last paragraph, you attribute something to me. Actually the point was raised by Sameer (if I recall correctly). No big deal, however,

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

Zeemax: ``The answer is because she is not a defaulter and neither is her husband. The news reports labelling them such were lies and dis-information.`` Nawaz Sharif`s corruption, both personal and public is very well documented by many organizations all over the world. This includes prestigious news organizations like the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, etc. There have even been video documentaries made on his corruption. I have printed much of that information on this site in earlier post. I don`t have the time to do it again. You seem convinced that NS is not corrupt. You are in a very very very small minority, that includes only his close associates, and people who have something to gain from him being in power. I have no interest in changing your mind. If you don`t think he is corrupt, well that is fine by me. I have seen too much documentation to know that he is corrupt.

Reply #: 568 Umairr :

Your argument is theoretically correct however your information is certainly lacking. It may come as a surprise to you that NS is not on the board of directors of a single company in the group. He had resigned all positions when he had entered politics. So the question does not arise of his being a defaulter through any group companies. Secondly, just one company in the whole group (Ramzan Sugar Mills)was on the list because of a dispute with the banks. Sahahbaz Saharif´s son is the MD of that company. The company paid the full outstanding amount of Rs. 270 million before expiry of the dead-line and is no longer on any list. No other Saharif family enterprise was ever a defaulter nor was on the defaulter list.

Thre Ittefaq Foundaries and Steel Mills business was transferred to the other side of the family in their division of assets some years ago and the Sharif brothers have no financial interest any longer in the Ittefaq Group. Some companies of that group are on the list.

Besides, the exit control list contains the immediate family members of defaulters regardless of whether they are directors or shareholders. A case in point is Asma Jehangir who is on the ECL because her husband is a defaulter.

So how come the wife of the biggest defaulter in the country is not on the ECL ? The answer is because she is not a defaulter and neither is her husband. The news reports labelling them such were lies and dis-information.

Zeemax: The fact that Nawaz Sharif is the biggest loan defaulter in the country is now well-documented. All this information is available with the banks, and is quite easy to access. Infact he is now a defaulter in England as well, and from what I have heard the English legal system may take over his luxury flats.

The classic default strategy is to default through companies one owns, which are separate entities than the individual, and not to default as an individual. This way the defaulter can stash away the bank loans, and declare bankruptcy on the companies. If the default is proven, the companies` assets are sold off, the defaulters private visible assets (like his luxury flats, cars etc.) maybe sold off. The defaulter may go to jail for a few years, if he/she is not in political office. However the cash which was obtained through politically influenced bank loans remains stashed away hidden somewhere.

When one says that NS is a defaulter that actually means that his companies, in which he is a major shareholder are at default. He himself personally probably does not owe anything to the banks. He is personally liable because he did not pay any taxes (a separate issue), and because he obviously used political influence to get the loans for his companies. If Kulsoom is also a major shareholder in the ownership of the companies then her name should be on the ECL as well (if it can be proven that she used political influence, as well, to get the bank loans). If she is just a minor owner (owns some shares), then she is off the hook. Obviously every shareholder of a defaulted company cannot be held responsible. There could be thousands of shareholders of public companies, and tens, if not hundreds, of investors in private companies.

Kulsoom however may end up on the ECL for other reasons like tax evasion, etc.

Dear Umaair,

Your sympathy was not soloicited towards Kalsum Nawaz in my post # 558. However a specific question was posed i.e., if the Sharif family is a the largest defaulter in the country, indeed a defaulter at all, how come Kalsum Nawaz is not on the exit control list ? Is it because of some beurocratic error ? Or is it because all the news reports to that effect were simply lies and dis-information ?

Rgds

To: A1, Ali1, Alireza, Amit, Anil, Anil Sharma, Arun Gupta, Assad_K, Bilal Ahmad, Bd, Bulbul, Chief Justice, Chowk Staff, Dragon Slayer, Dua’go, DullaBhatti, Fh, Fuzair, Gautama Sidharata Buddha, Gnostics, Godot, Gymnosophist, Hamidm, Iahmad, J.Alam, Jay, JR, Kafir k. Khan, Krashid, Majestickhans, Moez Mohsin, MQ_Rahat, Pardesi, Patrick Masih, Pu Li, Qanungo One, Rachna, Raja Amir Janjua, RAS Siddiqi, RoohiAD, Sadna, Sahib, Senior Justice, Shahzad C, Sohny Dharty, Syedha, TAhmad321, Tariqlodi, The Happy One, The Ravian One, Temporal, Tvarad, Umairr, XXYZ, Zeemax, ZZ and all Ckowkwallas.

Wishing you and your families a happy New Millenium, a happy New Century and a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. I wish the same to all the people of sub-continent.

SameerJB: Seasons Greetings to you as well. I have enjoyed discussing these issues with you. Having spent half my life in the military and the other half in the civilian private sector has been quite an education. I think both sides need to be better informed about the other. A lot of people in the military think all civilians are ill-disciplined opportunists, who don`t give a hoot about Pakistan. This may be true for most of the politicians, but I have found it to be untrue about the average civilian. Similarly, a lot of people in the civilian arena consider the miiltary personnel to be resource-grabbing war mongers, who retire filthy rich. This maybe true for a very small minority of the officers, but not for most of the officers.

I think the Pakistan military image has been hurt badly by a few over-ambitious generals, like Zia. At the some time the civilian image has been hurt by politicians like BB, NS, and the corrupt beaurecracy. These people constitute a very small portion of the military and civilian sector. To understand the actual military and civilian world requires looking at the average, and not the extreme.

Zeemax: Regarding Kulsoom Nawaz. Perhaps she has become an innocent victim of her husband`s wrong doings. Perhaps not. All I can say is that I paid more taxes than Nawaz, Shahbaz, and Kulsoom combined even when I was a 23 leiutenant making Rs. 5000/month. They have had a ball off my money (and your money, and the money of the poor people of Pakistan). Isn`t it strange how the rulers of the poorest nations have the grandest lifestyles. So it is very difficult for me to sympathesize with any of these people. However, justice should be provided to all, including the extremely corrupt. So I hope she can get her passport, and is allowed to go for an Umra. I also hope, in due time, her family is prosecuted for all the crimes they have committed.

Dear Umairr: It was very kind of you to explain the questions about children of armed forces personnel and a look into the life of retired colonels and lower ranking officers, in great detail in your posts # 559 and 562. I understand now why you have such a large number of very intellegent posts in great details about the armed forces; it is in your blood. Naturally three generations of sevice in the armed forces not only makes you well-informed but passionately involved in related issues. Once again thanks a lot for providing very relevant and precise information and honest opinions.

Season`s Greetings!

Regards,

Sameer

STILL HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS

Reply#540 tariqcodi

Dear Lodi Ji, Why should general Rani wail, she is still happy and prosperous. After all those years, her family still happens to be one of the leading suppliers (pimps) for the generals, with her daughter working in the foreground, general Rani enjoys her live in a posh house at Rawalpindi Cantt. LONG LIVE PAKISTAN ARMY, THE ONLY VIABLE INSTITUTION. LOL. Bye Bye Lodi Ji.

Roohi

SameerJB: Interesting topic you have mentioned here, regarding the military kids. My father, grandfather, and great grandfather were all life-long military people. I am the only one who quit half way through.

As far as the PAF and PN children are concerned, I think their life is quite good; quite a bit better than their civilian counterparts, if you don`t count the lack of finances. In the PAF, the children live in bases (colonies), which are very safe, and have an extremely good atmosphere for kids. Even in the middle of the worst riots in Karachi, the people in the PAF and PN bases could leave their doors unlocked and walk out in the middle of the nights, inside their bases. The PAF children do move around a lot from one city to another, but only within a limited no. of bases. So they keep running into the same people at each base. In case of the PN everything is in Karachi, or Islamabad, so the Navy kids do not move around at all. On the whole, I think the military life for the kids in the PAF and PN is extremely good. The atmosphere inside the bases is very clean; everyone is educated, no ethnic rivalries, no financial competition, quite liberal, a lot of respect for women, absolutely no crime, security guards at the base entrance, officers` club facilities, everyone is friendly with everyone, people look after each other, pretty good facilities for kids, i.e schools, swimming pool, sports grounds etc. etc.

Life for the Army kids I think, is a different story. The army is so big, that army kids have to move around all over Pakistan, to even the remotest of the areas. So they rarely run into each other. They are more than likely do face some of the issues you have mentioned.

You are correct in stating that retired officers are not in very good financial shape now, if they do not have an external source of income; specially the ones who do not end up with a plot. Usually the cut-off rank is Colonel/Wing Commander. Very few make it past this rank. I met one of my C.O.s (retired Colonel) at a base, a few years after he had retired. I late found out that the guy had come to the base just so he could make a phone call, because he could not afford a phone after retirement. One of his wealthy retired military friends has set him up with a tire shop, and that is how he made his living. It was quite sad.

After retirement life was something my friends and I never discussed, because it was a scary topic. Luckily, I was able to start up a second career, because I left at a very young age. An odd two or three of my friends will make it to the general rank, so they will be fine. Another two or three will get a chance to spend a few years on assignments in Saudia Arabia and Dubai, and make a lot of money there; they will do alright, as well. I am not quite sure what the rest will do after retirement, if they do not have any external source of income.

Umairr /Bahmad # 559, 560

Umairr, you are right about Islamabad`s plots not given to military personnel. Most of the plots were bought by higher ranking military officers from civilians during Zia`s era. Many civilians employees sold the plots for 1-2 lakh rupees each thinking it a great return on their 20K rupees investment.

I would like to mention couple of other points briefly. 1) It is very hard on the children of lower ranking army officers( probably also true for PAF officers) to keep moving every 2-3 years from place to place. The children are unable to develop long term friendships in schools and neighborhoods which is essential part of learning and growing up. It is not easy for an 8-10 year old kid to understand a move from Lahore, Karachi or Rawalpindi to Kohat or Pano Aqil or Okara. In my experience, I have seen these children mostly develop friendships with their relatives whom they see more regularly than their classmates of previous posting and many become introverts and less cheerful. Am I right?

2) This deals with short working life of those officers who fail to move beyond majors rank. I believe most of the majors do not make it to lieutenant colonel. The average working life of 18 years forces them to retirement in their mid forties. For many of them it is very difficlt to start all over again doing something different. Yet they need to work because their children are still young and can not support their parents. I have seen few retired majors going to work riding their bicycles.

Bilal, I have read most of the Noam Chomsky`s book including the one you mentioned. He is amazing. Another good author on the same line is Howard Zinn whose writings are much simpler. I believe morally no war can be justifed in modern times because of the heavy toll it incurs on the warring parties in human as well as material terms, especially for the poor countries.

Dear Umair and Dear Sameer:

I am grateful to both of you for your informative replies (Reply # 555, 556, 559). These replies have forced me to rethink about some aspects of Pakistani society. Please keep informing.

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

P.S. I know a very high-ranking retired PAF officer. He seems to suggest (as told by his son) that his family needs no less than Rs. 50,000 per month to maintain a barely reasonable standard of living. I have reasons to believe that this retired officer is an honest person, though the figure of 50,000 seems a bit too high.

This for the attention of Umairr :

Dear Umair,

Consider the following; and I would appreciate your specific comments:

1)Begum Kalsum Nawaz wanted to go for Umra last wek and asked for permission from the ministry of interior. The ministry said she was free to go anywhere because she wasn´t on the exit control list. That was a surprise because the press had been saying the Sharif family was the biggest defaulter in the country (you have been cutting / pasting a lot of those news reports as well). How could she not be on the exit control list when all defaulters of over 10 million Ruppees along with their families are on it?

2)She applied for a passport from the passport office after above clarification to proceed for Umra . The passport office said she had to surrender her previous (official) passport first. Mrs. Sharif told them that the Govt already had her previous passport because it was left in the PM house occupied now by musharraf. The passport office insisted nothing doing ... come up with the previous passport and we´ll give you a new one ! Begum Sharif asked `` But how ??``. There the matter rests as of now.

Doesn´t that seem awfully like ``1984`` ? That book which introduced the concept of ``Doublespeak`` ?