Rightsizing of the Armed Forces

re:#16 by jay
Mushy is an idiot and knows next to nothing about satellites. Pak Army, when not defending the country (which it never has), indulges in these kind of antics for domestic consumption. Russians will charge a hefty amount from Pak (which is spending its meagre resources for what?) for satellite launches and Mushy will have the satisfaction of saying what he likes.
Few countries have the capability for satellite launches (India is one of them) and putting a satellite into a geostationary orbit. India has been doing this successfully for small weight satellites and has created a niche for itself in this field. Sometimes back, South Korean and a German satellites were piggybacked on a rocket with an Indian satellite and launched successfully.
I am only reminded of a sanskrit proverb here: ``Ardho ghatam ghosham upayeti noonam`` meaning `` a half empty vessel makes a lot of voice``. That is what our Mushy boy is: a half-empty vessel!
Sridhar

CONTRIBUTION OF ISRAEL,

The contribution of israel in redefining jihad has not been well accepted by the non-muslms. In the past, the shaheeds, the martyres, provided a significant boost to the families. The mulim NGOs stepped in with money and the society honoured the families. There were films of proud families sending their children to death. Now the situation is different, most want to dis own the shaheeds, the only thing that martyre leaves to his family is homelessness and loss. This has altered the mindset of the palestinians towards jihad. Once again, israel has knowcked of one conutable against each of the uncountables.

The pak army has relied on the uncountables to support their strategic depth concept, the kargill invasion. It is clear that the pak army will exclusively rely on these un countables why the lead a luxurious life style running the Wapds. I do hope that india will soon realise this, and backed by the airborne warning system and the new airforce hardware india should turn the uncountables to countables along the indo pak borders. That would be the minimum required to contain the jihadists.

NEEDS OF THE ARMY,

When the US lifted the embargo, mushy in his first visit to the US asked for the F16 fighters, that was the top most in his mind. After 30 years a pak president visits russia, and he wants missile defence sytems. Army is only interested in preserving itself from the indian troops, the only threat to them. The pak society is finall a monolith, jihadists have control of the military and have managed to put the jihadists in the pak parliment as well through the graduate progra. In pakistan a person who has spent ten years in a madrassa learning koran by rote can become a meber of parliment, he is a graduste, but does not recognise an oxford degree.

The new Pm of pakistan, in his first address wanted friday as holiday, not different from the needs of the army.

The chowk mullahs like the tahmeds talk of roti kapda, no sirs, that can wait,a mushy kalifaei is the first priority, and only threat to it is india.

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riffatj #48 Good post. It is in a way good, as you say, that ``they (the people of pakistan) are too pre-occupied with their daily life problems to partake in street politics.`` Pakistan`s best hope for the future is its energetic and down-to-warth population. For the past couple of decades, only those who couldnt get into professional colleges joined the military, and most of the fanatics were even bigger losers. Unfortunately, these losers and troublemakers are taking all the headlines (and political power).
But never underestimate the power of the people - the sun will shine one day on Pakistan as well. And that will be due to the honest, hardworking qualities of its ordinary people - not the scum that captures the headlines.

Hello!

To my immense pleasure, the interaction so far has been very relevant and strictly to the point. A couple of clarifications would be in order.
An easy access to the Internet notwithstanding, [thankfully] I am pretty doubtful that I can be classified as “elite” by any measure. I stem from a simple rural set-up of northern Punjab with very mediocre financial standing. Obviously, not the lowest social strata, I can however claim to represent the mainstream society of Pakistan.
There is a gross misconception that the military is still revered by the 99 % [or for that matter even simple majority] of the Pakistanis. Presumably, some of the readers don’t have an idea that today even ordinary people -- right from illiterate lower working class to apolitical housewives -- have started squarely blaming Army for the sordid mess in the country. The intervening role of the army is no more a mere academic discussion. It is being discussed and denounced in remote villages as well as kachi abadis.

A pertinent question would be that why don’t we see any civil unrest in the country then? Please note, the [disappointment and] resentment of a common man against the junta is not equal to an approval for the political leadership either. In general, people are totally disillusioned on one hand and utterly despondent on the other. They have almost lost the hope and consequently vigour to stand up and fight for their rights. They are too pre-occupied with their daily life problems to partake in street politics. This silence is a sort of macabre indifference, not at all an endorsement of Musharraf & Co.

Now moving from the social/political issues to military aspects, I would warmly recommend a really nice thought-provoking article. Please, read it and have your own opinion.

Professionalism and Discipline of Armed Forces in a Society with Repeated Military Interventions — Case of Pakistani Armed Forces
http://www.defencejournal.com/2003/jan/military.htm

Regards,
Riffat Jahan

Please, listen to it, in particular the first five minutes, to have an idea what respect our militarymen have for the people and their will.

BBC`s Report with Musharraf`s Interview at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/rams/zafarye.ram

you will be appalled, to say the least.

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#37 by ahmadzai on February 8, 2003 6:56am PT
//...Its just that they were able to snatch 1/3rd of Kasmir from India in 1949...//

AFAIK, Kashmir wasn`t with India at that time. Its king joined India later to save his a**, when the invaders came close to Srinagar. ( Experts tell us that - but for that invasion in 1949, Kashmir would probably still be an independent territory, but that`s another story)

But, are you sure it was the great Paki Army which ``snatched`` 1/3 of Kashmir? Until today, pakis insisted that it was the brave ``tribals`` who did it. So who was it then?

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To those countrymen eugolizing the military.

...After years of observing and writing about the antics of our military and political rulers, I have reached the somewhat cynical conclusion that no matter who is in charge, some things will never change. The reality of power in Pakistan is that the army has controlled the destiny of the nation for most of its existence, and is likely to continue doing so in the foreseeable future. The invisible `agencies` have huge, unaudited budgets and manipulate and malign politicians and control sections of the press. Incidentally, all this is a matter of public record: names of politicians and journalists who have received cash handouts from the exchequer have been published many times without any action being taken against those making the payments and those receiving them.

Under these circumstances, how can democracy possibly function? And if it can`t, what difference does it make who occupies the prime minister`s house in Islamabad? Before the elections, the received wisdom was that there would inevitably be friction between the elected PM and President Pervez Musharraf over the exercise of power.

In the event, the transition has been relatively smooth despite the hysteria in the press, although to be accurate, there has in fact been no transition as power remains firmly and securely with the president/chief of army staff. All that has happened is that the title of chief executive has passed to Jamali who is perfectly content to play second fiddle.

One major problem with the army`s role is that as an institution, it is convinced that its interest is identical to the national interest which it has defined without any semblance of a public debate. This leads to the conclusion that to justify our bloated defence budget, Pakistan needs an enemy. In our case, this means India. The logical inference to be drawn from this line of reasoning is that the Kashmir issue will never be resolved.

Another reason the army will never voluntarily loosen its grip on power is that the officer class is too accustomed to all the perks that go with running the country. Currently, literally hundreds of civilian jobs here and in our missions abroad are manned by serving and retired military personnel.

Housing estates and agricultural lands across the country have been parcelled out to officers as a matter of routine. Above all, they are virtually exempt from any sort of prosecution on charges of corruption. Every class has its own set of demands and requirements and normally, these are mediated with the state and some compromise is reached. In the army`s case, there is no mediation because it controls the levers of power.

Had the army`s monopoly on power meant simply the usurpation and waste of resources, we could have gritted our teeth and got on with life. Unfortunately, the assumption that GHQ is the source of all wisdom has many implications: for instance, when there is complicit relationship between religious extremists and the `agencies`, it is not possible for the enfeebled state to control the former. Their violent methods in Afghanistan and Kashmir cannot be switched on and off at will, and the result is the kind of hate-filled rhetoric and bloodletting we have grown so accustomed to...

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/20030104.htm

Pakistan Army was significantly smaller before the 1971 War

In 1970 we had about 2,500 gazetted officers and about 12 generals. Now we have more than 125 generals and over 12,000 bureaucrats.

The author is right on. So long as the military is promoted and regarded as a sacred cow there is little hope of making anything beyond a token investment in the basic needs of the the people, food, shelter, health care, education etc. Defence and debt-servicing (which is also largely the result of fueling the military machine) consume almost the entire state revenues year after year.
And the army`s claim to the status of a sacred cow rests on the twin myths of preventing Indian aggression and ``liberation`` of Kashmir. It is high time for tha saner elements of in Pakistan refuse to be hoodwinked, opt for peace with India and let the people of Kashmir define and lead their own struggle.

...... as usual our resident khaki has a brilliant solution :

`` Cut the number of General position to one third its number, across the board, from the current 160 (around 125 Army, 23 Air Force, 15 Navy) to 55. This can be done by the National Assembly.``

.......... the national assembly! ......a mna can`t even get through tthe main gate of the ghq !........ the defense minister has to stand in line to visit with a lowly major in the ms branch or the assistant qmg .......... national assembly indeed ! .......for god`s sake, these guys are not even allowed to park their car within two miles of the csd ............