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Criticism of the Pakistan Armed Forces

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The Pakistan Armed Forces include Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy. Most active of them is Pakistan Army who have been criticized for eroding democratic processes in Pakistan, for being the largest business conglomeration in the country and for excessive control over the domestic and foreign policies of Pakistan. In 2019, The Economist blamed Pakistan Army for the poverty in Pakistan.[1]

Critics of the Pakistan Army, such as human rights activist Manzoor Pashteen, have been jailed while like-minded Pakistani citizens are warned against criticizing the military.[2][3]

Pakistan Army

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Corruption

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Pakistan Army runs Fauji Foundation which sold Khoski Sugar Mill in 2004 for PKR 300 million despite receiving the highest bid of PKR 387 million.[4][5] In 2005, a corruption case was filed in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against then managing director Syed Muhammad Amjad who involved in the corruption.[6]

In 2010, a corruption scandal was unearthed that involved two Pakistan Army generals, (Maj Gen Khalid Zaheer Akhtar and Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal), and caused a loss of Rs. 1.8 billion to the National Logistics Corporation through speculative investments between 2004 and 2008.[7][8] In 2015, both of them were convicted by the military court of Pakistan.[9]

Involvement in government

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The Pakistan Army controls the foreign policy of Pakistan.[10]

Islamisation of Pakistan

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Main article: Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization of Pakistan

Pakistan Army was involved in the Islamisation of Pakistan in the past, especially under Zia-ul-Haq's martial law.nd domestic policy of Islamisation of Pakistan.[11][12][13] Zia-ul-Haq and other military officials began the policy of Islamisation in Pakistan.[12][13][11]

During the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq a "program of Islamization" of the country including the textbooks was started to ingrain school kids with Islamised fundamentals.[14] [15] According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, since the 1970s Pakistan's school textbooks have systematically inculcated hatred towards India and Hindus through historical revisionism.[16] Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, under a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism in earnest and exploited this initiative. 'The Pakistani military taught their children right from the beginning that this state was built on the basis of religion – that's why they don't have tolerance for other religions and want to wipe-out all of them.'[17]

Policy against India

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Pakistan Army has used military doctrine of Bleed India with a Thousand Cuts in the past against India.[18][19][20] It consists of waging covert war against India using insurgents at multiple locations.[21]

According to scholar Aparna Pande, this view was put forward in various studies by the Pakistan Army, particularly in its Staff College, Quetta.[22] Peter Chalk and Christine Fair cite the former director of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) explicating the strategy.[23] This doctrine was first attempted to flame the Punjab insurgency and then Kashmir insurgency using India's western border with Pakistan.[24][25]

General Zia-ul-Haq adopted the 'bleeding India through a thousand cuts' doctrine using covert and low-intensity warfare with militancy and infiltration.[26][25][24]

Enforced disappearances in Pakistan

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Main article: Forced disappearance in Pakistan

The military is allegedly responsible for the thousands of kidnapping and disappearances.[27] and described as epidemic by Human Rights Watch (HRW),[28] forced appearances, extrajudicial killings and targeted killings of people which the military consider enemy of the state.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] Through direct involvement of military and ISI in these activities.[38][39][40][41][42][43] In July 2011, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan issued a report on illegal disappearances in Balochistan which identified ISI and Frontier Corps as the perpetrators.[44] The military in Pakistan is responsible for the ongoing forced disappearance in Pakistan, a form of kidnapping, torturing and extrajudicial killing its own citizens without any judicial due process. After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, forced disappearance in Pakistan began during the rule of military dictator General Pervez Musharraf (1999 to 2008).[45] After Musharraf resigned in August 2008, he was charged with various human rights violations.[46] During Musharraf's tenure, many people were forcibly taken away by government agencies.[46][47][48]

Training of Jihadi outfits

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Pervez Musharraf has conceded that his forces trained militant groups to fight India in Indian-administered Kashmir.[49] He confessed that the government ″turned a blind eye″ because it wanted to force India to enter into negotiations, as well as raise the issue internationally.[49] He also said Pakistani spies in the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) cultivated the Taliban after 2001 because Karzai's government was dominated by non-Pashtuns, who are the country's largest ethnic group, and by officials who were thought to favour India.[50]

Pakistan Air Force

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Corruption

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Pakistan Air Force runs Shaheen Foundation which founded Shaheen Insurance in 1995 as a joint venture with a South African insurance company, Hollard Group.[51] Later, Hollard's management was dissatisfied with the investment, citing corruption as a major impediment to their investment's success.[51]

Pakistan Navy

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Corruption

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Main article: Karachi affair

Pakistan Navy's officials were found guility of corruption in Karachi affair. Commissions of 6.25% of the contract, approximately €50 million, were paid out to the lobbying firms in Pakistan and France.[52] Some €50m were allegedly paid as "sweeteners" to various senior Pakistan Navy admirals and officers as well as the political leaders. In 1996–97, the Naval Intelligence led by its Director-General, Rear-Admiral Tanvir Ahmed, secretly launched its investigations into this matter and began collecting physical evidence that eventually led to the exposure of Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Mansurul Haq, in receiving massive monetary commissions in 1997.[53] Massive media coverage and the news of the dismissals of one and two-star admirals tarnished the image of the Navy, with Admiral Fasih Bokhari, who took over the command of the Navy from Admiral Mansurul Haq, forced to attempt damage control of the situation.[54][55]

Businesses

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Pakistan's military has been criticized for running a military–industrial complex in Pakistan with more than 50 business entities; owned through Army Welfare Trust, Bahria Foundation, Defence Housing Authority, Fauji Foundation, and Shaheen Foundation; which includes petrol pumps, industrial plants, banks, bakeries, schools and universities, hosiery factories, milk dairies, stud farms, and cement plants, as well Defence Housing Authority townships.[56]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Pakistan's army is to blame for the poverty of the country's 208m citizens". The Economist.
  2. ^ "Activist who dared to challenge Pakistan army held". BBC News. 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  3. ^ "Pakistanis warned to stop 'army-bashing'". BBC News. 2017-05-15. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  4. ^ "FF underbidding to be probed". DAWN.COM. 22 April 2005.
  5. ^ "Opposition senators' privilege motion rejected – Business Recorder".
  6. ^ "Probe against former NAB chief sought: Sale of Khoski Sugar Mill". DAWN.COM. 6 July 2005.
  7. ^ Newspaper, the (July 2, 2012). "NLC scandal". DAWN.COM. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012.
  8. ^ "Rs4.3b NLC scam: Military probe finds two ex-generals guilty". The Express Tribune. August 5, 2015.
  9. ^ "Army sentences two former generals in NLC corruption case". DAWN.COM. August 5, 2015.
  10. ^ Javid, Hassan (23 November 2014). "COVER STORY: The Army & Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan". DAWN.COM. Dawn Newspapers. Dawn Newspapers. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  11. ^ a b Ḥaqqānī, Husain (2005). Pakistan: between mosque and military. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-87003-214-1. Retrieved 23 May 2010. Zia ul-Haq is often identified as the person most responsible for turning Pakistan into a global center for political Islam. Undoubtedly, Zia went farthest in defining Pakistan as an Islamic state, and he nurtured the jihadist ideology ...
  12. ^ a b Haqqani, Hussain (2005). Pakistan:Between Mosque and Military; §From Islamic Republic to Islamic State. United States: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (July 2005). p. 148. ISBN 978-0-87003-214-1.
  13. ^ a b Jones, Owen Bennett (2002). Pakistan : eye of the storm. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 16–7. ISBN 978-0300101478. ... Zia made Islam the centrepiece of his administration.
  14. ^ Haqqani, Hussain (10 March 2010). Pakistan:between mosque and the military. Carnegie Endowment. ISBN 9780870032851. Retrieved 9 April 2011. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  15. ^ Jamil, Baela Raza. "Curriculum Reforms in Pakistan – A Glass Half Full or Half Empty?" (PDF). Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  16. ^ The subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan Compiled by A. H. Nayyar and Ahmed Salim
  17. ^ The threat of Pakistan's revisionist texts, The Guardian, 18 May 2009
  18. ^ Gates, Scott, Kaushik Roy (2016). Unconventional Warfare in South Asia: Shadow Warriors and Counterinsurgency. Routledge. pp. Chapter 4. ISBN 978-1-317-00540-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Sitaraman, Srini (2012), "South Asia: Conflict, Hegemony, and Power Balancing", in Kristen P. Williams; Steven E. Lobell; Neal G. Jesse (eds.), Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons: Why Secondary States Support, Follow, or Challenge, Stanford University Press, p. 181, ISBN 978-0-8047-8110-7: 'manipulating ethnosectarian conflict and domestic challenges to power across the borders to weaken Indian security through a tactic described by several analysts as "bleed India through a thousand cuts"'
  20. ^ Ganguly, Sumit (31 March 2016). Deadly Impasse. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76361-5.: 'The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) led attack on Bombay (Mumbai) in November 2008 was emblematic of this new strategy designed to bleed India with a "war of a thousand cuts".'
  21. ^ Sirrs, Owen L. (2016). Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate: Covert Action and Internal Operations. Routledge. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-317-19609-9. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  22. ^ Pande, Aparna (16 March 2011). Explaining Pakistan's Foreign Policy: Escaping India. Routledge. pp. 200, footnote 103. ISBN 978-1-136-81893-6.: Pande cites, as an example, Col. Javed Hassan, India: A Study in Profile, Quetta: Services Book Club. A Study conducted for the Faculty of Research and Doctrinal Studies, Command and Staff College (1990)
  23. ^ Chalk, Peter; Fair, C. Christine (December 2002), "Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leads the Kashmiri insurgency" (PDF), Jane's Intelligence Review, 14 (10): 'In the words of Hamid Gul, the former director general of the ISI: "We have gained a lot because of our offensive in Kashmir. This is a psychological and political offensive that is designed to make India bleed through a thousand cuts."'
  24. ^ a b Dogra, Wg Cdr C Deepak (2015). Pakistan: Caught in the Whirlwind. Lancer Publishers LLC. ISBN 978-1-940988-22-1. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  25. ^ a b Maninder Dabas (3 October 2016). "Here Are Major Long Term War Doctrines Adopted By India And Pakistan Over The Years". Indiatimes. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  26. ^ Sharma, Reetika (2011), India and the Dynamics of World Politics: A book on Indian Foreign Policy, Related events and International Organizations, Pearson Education India, p. 135, ISBN 978-81-317-3291-5
  27. ^ "The Fight To Find The Disappeared In Restive Balochistan". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 10 December 2018. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018.
  28. ^ "Pakistan: Upsurge in Killings in Balochistan". Human Rights Watch. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  29. ^ Walsh, Declan (28 July 2011). "Pakistan's military accused of escalating draconian campaign in Balochistan". The Guardian.
  30. ^ "Congressman Sherman Condemns Assault on Families of Disappeared Persons during Hunger-Strike in Sindh, Pakistan". 21 May 2018.
  31. ^ Baehr, Peter R. (2 July 1994). Human Rights in Developing Countries - Yearbook 1994. Springer. pp. 291–305. ISBN 9789065448453. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  32. ^ "UN experts on missing persons to visit Pakistan from Sept 10". Dawn. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  33. ^ "PAKISTAN: The intelligence agencies target nationalists groups to cover up the activities of Taliban in Sindh province and their inefficiency". Asian Human Rights Commission. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  34. ^ "Sindh University authorities use law enforcement agencies for disappearances of students". Asian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  35. ^ Gannon, Kathy (28 April 2018). "Pashtun rights group accuses Pakistan army of abuses". Associated Press. A Pakistani human rights group that has accused the military of widespread abuses as it battles Islamist militants in Pakistan's rugged border region with neighboring Afghanistan has emerged as a force among the country's Pashtun minority, drawing tens of thousands to rallies to protest what it contends is a campaign of intimidation that includes extrajudicial killings and thousands of disappearances and detentions.
  36. ^ Gannon, Kathy (28 April 2018). "Pashtun rights group accuses Pakistan army of abuses". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on 17 February 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  37. ^ Khan, Omer Farooq (5 June 2018). "10 Pashtun protesters killed in Pakistan, activists blame military - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  38. ^ Akbar, Malik Siraj (2018-07-19). "Opinion | In Balochistan, Dying Hopes for Peace". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  39. ^ Mazzetti, Mark; Schmitt, Eric; Savage, Charlie (23 July 2011). "Pakistan Spies on Its Diaspora, Spreading Fear". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2019. Several Pakistani journalists and scholars in the United States interviewed over the past week said that they were approached regularly by Pakistani officials, some of whom openly identified themselves as ISI officials. The journalists and scholars said the officials caution them against speaking out on politically delicate subjects like the indigenous insurgency in Baluchistan or accusations of human rights abuses by Pakistani soldiers. The verbal pressure is often accompanied by veiled warnings about the welfare of family members in Pakistan, they said.
  40. ^ Rashid, Ahmed (22 February 2014). "Balochistan: The untold story of Pakistan's other war". BBC News. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  41. ^ Tarabella, Marc (23 June 2015). "EU cannot ignore dire human rights situation in Balochistan". The Parliament Magazine. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  42. ^ Dwivedi, Manan (2009). South Asia Security. Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. pp. 103–4. ISBN 978-81-7835-759-1. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  43. ^ Rashid, Ahmed (22 February 2014). "Balochistan: The untold story of Pakistan's other war". BBC News. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  44. ^ Akbar, Malik Siraj (17 May 2015). "Betrayal in Balochistan". The World Post. Retrieved 25 June 2015. In Pakistan, everyone says they have incontrovertible evidence about India's involvement in destabilizing Balochistan. They only won't share the evidence with you because they insist that when evidence is already too evident then why should one make the evident, evident?
  45. ^ "We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years". Human Rights Watch. 28 July 2011.
  46. ^ a b Shayne R. Burnham (28 September 2008). "Musharraf Faces Charges of Human Rights Violations". Impunity Watch.
  47. ^ "Pakistan". Freedom House. 2007. Archived from the original on 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  48. ^ Irene Khan (30 August 2008). "Where are the disappeared?". Dawn.
  49. ^ a b "SPIEGEL Interview with Pervez Musharraf: 'Pakistan is Always Seen as the Rogue' – SPIEGEL ONLINE". Spiegel Online. Spiegel.de. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  50. ^ Boone, Jon (13 February 2015). "Musharraf: Pakistan and India's backing for 'proxies' in Afghanistan must stop". The Guardian.
  51. ^ a b Brömmelhörster, Jörn; Paes, Wolf-Christian (2004). The Military as an Economic Actor: Soldiers in Business. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 139-140. ISBN 9780333999288. The insurance company Shaheen Insurance was founded in 1995 with a view to establishing a partnership with a South African insurance company, Hollard Insurance Ltd. A partnership was finally worked out in 1997, with Hollard owning a 30 per cent share. The South African company was disappointed by the results, however. Its management felt that corruption was a big problem that dampened the prospects of their investment. It is interesting to note that the deal was brokered by an acting Air Force officer who, after retirement, got a job in the company. The South Africans asserted that the deal was negotiated on a one-to-one basis with the officer involved.
  52. ^ "French divorce holds key to Karachi affair". Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  53. ^ Sharif, Arshad (30 December 2010). "REPORTER-Kickbacks and commissions in Agosta submarine case-Part-3-Clip-1" (watch.tv). Dawn News (in Urdu). Islamabad: Dawn News Network, 2010 P-I. Dawn News Network. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  54. ^ Anwar, Dr Muhammad (2006). Stolen Stripes and Broken Medals: Autobiography of a Senior Naval Officer. Author House. ISBN 9781467010566. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  55. ^ Selections from Regional Press. Institute of Regional Studies. 2001. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  56. ^ Inside Pakistan’s biggest business conglomerate: the Pakistani military, qz.com, Lt. General Kamal, 21 DavarNovember 2017.
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