Rightsizing of the Armed Forces

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.

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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.

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.

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

#46 by arjun_m on February 8, 2003 11:58am PT
//..FBI seeking Pakistani man who entered U.S. illegally..//

It is a conspiracy hatched by FBI to justify INS registration of pakistanis and malign the reputation of Pakistan.

Riffat Jahan # 48: You have precisely and objectively laid out the broader picture of our society. The nature of Pakistani society needs understanding with the help of history. I would not go into the details here but the net result of a number of factors is that our society lacks clear vision. The official version of Pakistaniness or pakistani identity is largely the concepts developed during independence movement. Public is very confused about it because the practices are widely vascillating on either side of the narrowly defined Pakistani society. Everybody wants progress, social justice and prosperity but the solutions in mind are extremely diverse. On one side, supremacy of religion is offered as a solution and secularism on the other; those who accept little bit of both have been in power and messing up big time because they follow appeasement of both extremes. Many in the diasporic Pakistani population are comfortable with this poutpouri of opposite extremes and justify military dictatorship for the lack of credible and honest political leadership.

Military (Army establishment) has been playing the game of divide and rule with the political leadership with always finding enough civilians to tow military line. The outcome of military interference have been devastating for Pakistani economy, internal cohesion and foreign policy matters. For example, military created Taliban but remained complacent about Taliban involvement in sectarian terrorism in Pakistan. Both BB and NS were so helpless in dealing with sectarian terrorists because of the `strategic depth` polices of military.

I recall pointing out surge in sectarian violence near the end of NS era and sudden drop in violence with his overthrow. The resident expert of military affairs at chowk was sooooo upset for even thinking that military could possibly be a party in the sectarian violence. Now every child on the street knows that sectarian terrorist, Taliban and Kashmiri mujahideen were interchangeable labels for same people.

It is impossible to think that military intelligence did not know that some of the best physicians and surgeons were treating OBL, his lieutenants and Talibans. Who are responsible for tranfering nuclear technology to N. Korea in exchange for rocket technology. Didn`t they consider its effect on relationships with east Asian countries and the USA.

What else is new? They have not changed. They manipulated the whole election process to bring down BB and NS in exchange for MMA. The military has not closed the books on supporting jihads and Islamic terrorism. Right now, it is safely tucked away in exchange for political power to mullahs. The MMA and Army establishment nexus can be revived within days once USA pressure eases. In the meantime, mullahs can be occupied with morality issues in NWFP and Balochistan.

The story of Musharraf taking personal interest in buying partially disabled satellite from Boing appeared in the press, including SA Tribune. Pakistan was made to lease it by a middleman in Chicage (where Boing is headquartered) when nobody in the region was interested in leasing it. I wonder who could be a middleman in Chicage with close access to Musharraf? Boing was not going to make any money on it this year for sure, but thanks to our expert in gorilla tactics, Boing will earn 40 million.

Pakistan and Russia has very litttle trade. Our Kargil mastermind goes to Russia with so much media propaganda that even China will not be pleased with such a move. Russia is not an ascending power to give so much importance.

So it is not just the military budget, unfair business practices of military industrial complex, squandering resources and plots grabbing; the major loss to Pakistanis is both bad policies and military-backed state sponsored indoctrination to create a Pakistani identity that focuses almost exclusively on ideological and political enemies much more than on progress, prosperity, native cultures and decent living.

...... after reading the silly crowing comments of the horrible hindoos, i would like to retract my disparaging remarks about the pak army .......... as a matter of fact, i think we should double the defense budget with full back-pay for our field marshall romair ..........

Re: Jay, Arjun M

I would like to sugges that Pakistan should give you honorary citizenship. People who can criticize Pakistani policy fallicies with such detail and knowledge--they should become MP`s there. Truly these are opposition leaders that can benefit Pakistan`s long term future. Hamidm2--don`t lose sight of the fact that the army`s size and power is ultimately making Pakistan weak not strong. Pakistanis should do the same--a strong critique of India` s weaknesses ultimately benefits the Indian people. Two strongly democratic and progressive countries don`t go to war.

#55 by hamidm2 on February 8, 2003 8:25pm PT
//after reading the silly crowing comments of the horrible hindoos...i think we should double the defense budget with back-pay for our field marshall romair ...//

Good for Romair. As for Pakistan - it would accelerate towards insolvency at double speed. And horrible hondoos will crow even more.

ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: Pakistan has decided to reduce the share of defence expenditure in GDP to 3.6 per cent, thus reverting to a trend that aimed at keeping the defence budget constant in real terms over the medium term.

Informed sources told Dawn here on Saturday that Pakistan had informed the World Bank and the IMF that continued tension on the country`s eastern border was still hampering the government`s ability to create additional space for the much-needed increase in human development expenditure.

Nonetheless, both the international donors were assured that Pakistan`s defence expenditure will ``remain static`` despite provocations by India, which has increased its military budget manifold, particularly during the last three years.

The sources said Pakistan had been advised by both the international donors to continue discussions with them to assess the quality of current financial year`s Rs140 billion Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and the Interim-Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) programmes.

The donors were also informed that district governments were executing their investment budgets in line with the needs and priorities of the community they administer.

The government was expecting that the devolution of investment expenditure to the elected local administrations will increase the effectiveness of such expenditure.

The sources said the World Bank and IMF were told that various reforms in government procurement policies, the restructuring of Water and Power Development Authority and Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation, and better monitoring and greater accountability of public enterprises will achieve the programmed reduction of quasi-fiscal activities and of explicit and hidden subsidies to public enterprises. Assurances were given particularly about Wapda that it will not require any further budgetary support from the next financial year.
http://www.dawn.com/2003/02/09/top7.htm

ESCAPING QUICK SANDS,

Pakistan is trapped in the jihadic quick sands, and like the real quick sands, the only option is ti p--iss on it. This article is the first of its kind, the jihadists have been called the cannon fodder, the mercenaries. What is needed is more co-ordinated p-issing on the jihadists.

Saimasha, 57,

Instead of coming up with sarcasm, learn something out of our posts, learn what is criticism. It is not what the ilks of you do, ooh pak army is corrupt, the politicians are bad, the jihadists are not good. Tell the truth, for example tell the world that so many temples were destroyed in response to babri majid, do not let the jafir, PM to be the only person to say that. Tell YLH that there are no roads named after abdus salaam, do not leave ferzok to be the only person.

Saima, truth will save pakistan, and of course the indian army.

#59

Re: Jay

hello? I wasn`t being sarcastic at all. I sincerely meant it. You guys are great people. You keep criticizing. You keep bringing up the same issues: jihadis, narrow-minded Pakistanis, nutty muslims--so they maintain their priority on Chowk as topics--. I think everybody benefits from constructive criticism and some leg pulling is necessary. Yes, people in Pakistan have been racist, nationalistic, prejudiced and downright mean to minorities. Yes, the armed forces run the country. As for who or what will `save` Pakistan....firstly, let`s define the enemy. Who is Pakistan`s biggest enemy? And who or how will Pakistan be saved from it?

then tell me, who or what is India`s biggest enemy? and who or what can save India from it?

waiting for a response (especially since you know so much about geopolitical affairs in that conflict ridden part of the world)
sincerely
Saima Shah

saima 61,

I think I have in a post to the most sane man on chowk, paagalinsaan has said that for most indians, the only interest in pakistan is because of kashmir terrorism. In a way, it had been good, the neglect of the forces since the 1970 war has been corrected, with the use of force coming to the forefront as in the case of iraq, kargill invasion was the best that happened to india.

Containing islam will remain the most importamnt topic for at least a few decades. Isolation of pakistan is next only to that of south korea and with the continuing attack on troops in afghanistan, the missing osama, it may be time for india to define pakistan as enemy.

I am not believer of the crapbeing said on chowk by the ilks of tahmed, ras etc that poverty is the enemy. No, with out a political system to suit it poverty cannot be removed. Pak poverty has increased in the last decade simply because of jihad. Now it is isolated simply because of jihad. First jihad has to be eliminated before poverty can be tackled. Poverty is a symptom, the cause is something else.

Ref SaimaShah #61

[then tell me, who or what is India`s biggest enemy? and who or what can save India from it?]

Today, India`s biggest enemy is China.

In the long run, it is the USA which wants to run the world as it sees fit.

So long as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar think they can play the China card against India, they will form temporary nuisances, not enemies.

Riffat & Saima:

In the past, the change of democratically elected govs boiled down to undoing the previous govs doings. The frequent 180 degree changes in policy lead to instability in the country. For example, our industrialists always complained about the frequent changes in SROs that adversely impacted the industrial performance.

I would strongly defend General Pervaiz Musharraf and his current set up to keep the continuity of policy till the time political and economic stability returns. Also, in the absence of the General and his army backing them up, the current democratic government will collapse against terrorists` backlash.