Pakistan’s money pit

G Parthasarathy

Chancellor, Jammu Central University & former High Commissioner to Pakistan

THE acquisition of wealth through allotments of residential plots in plush cantonment townships has been a long-term pastime of senior officials of the Pakistan army. One often hears jokes in parties in Pakistan of ‘plots about plots’ by senior officers of the army! Some say that its officers are busy making so much money in property deals that defending the country has become a secondary task. Retired Generals live in mansions after retirement. Pakistan perhaps has the only army in the world, where two successive army chiefs, Generals Pervez Musharraf and Ashfaq Kayani, spent several years abroad, living luxuriously, almost immediately after they retired. Musharraf has spent long years after retirement in London and Dubai, while Kayani did likewise in Sydney.

Pakistan’s former army chiefs are never asked from where they got the money to live abroad luxuriously.

Musharraf mellowed after the Kargil conflict. Kayani had the dubious distinction of looking on sheepishly, as the US Naval Special Forces attacked the house where the ISI had housed Osama bin Laden in the cantonment town of Abbottabad in 2011. Osama’s house was located close to the Pakistan Military Academy. Nevertheless, Pakistan’s former army chiefs are never asked from where they got the money to live abroad. Musharraf, who had become realistic on relations with India after his Kargil fiasco, called a halt to terrorist attacks and undertook ‘back channel’ talks with India on J&K. Kayani, however, remained wedded to his hard-line beliefs, which were shared by his successor, Gen Raheel Sharif, who was described by the BBC as: ‘The army chief who ruled without a coup.’ His actions have not yet been revealed, as he has spent a long time in Saudi Arabia, commanding a non-existent, 41-member ‘Islamic military force’.

In recent months, Pakistan was engrossed in selecting a successor for its army chief, Gen Asim Bajwa, who turned out to be far more assertive than his predecessors in taking control of foreign policy. He dealt toughly with an egotistic Imran Khan, with a number of reports emerging of the ISI arranging for the formation of a new coalition to replace the Imran Khan government. This coalition, led by Shehbaz Sharif, has been guided by the military led by Bajwa, who, in turn, has faced criticism, including from within the army, about the directions which the country’s foreign and domestic policies were taking.

Realists in Pakistan acknowledge that given the country’s dire economic straits and precarious foreign exchange situation, Pakistan has to bend to the imperatives of yielding to US wishes. Moreover, Shehbaz Sharif lacks the charisma of Imran Khan and the acumen of his politically savvy elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, who has yet to get serious legal charges against him set aside before he can return to Pakistan. Shehbaz had to travel to London to seek the directions of Nawaz on crucial areas like the appointment of a new army chief. Bajwa’s stamp is written all over the appointment of Gen Syed Asim Munir as the new chief, who has no love lost for Imran Khan. Imran insisted on appointing his own blue-eyed boy, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, but now he appears headed for obscurity after retirement. There is, however, no doubt that Hameed will have enough resources of urban land to live comfortably for years!

Ever since the politically weak Shehbaz took over as PM, replacing Imran in what was an army-backed change, there have been whispers of an ‘American hand’ in the change. Some significant changes have occurred in the US-Pakistan relationship in recent months. These changes have distinct markings of Bajwa’s hand. These include Imran’s ouster. There was a cosy relationship between Bajwa and not just the Pentagon, but also the entire Biden administration. There was evidently a ‘Bajwa hand’ in expediting US support for IMF loans. This was accompanied by the announcement of a $450 million US military supply programme for Pakistan. The message by the US was that Bajwa, and not Shehbaz, was the intermediary on crucial matters.

While these elements are important internationally, what is relevant in Pakistan’s politics is a credible report about the wealth accumulated by Bajwa and his family. The report notes: ‘The General’s wife Ayesha became a multi-billionaire with large farmhouses in Gulberg Greens, Islamabad and Karachi, multiple residential plots in Lahore, and commercial plots and plazas in DHA schemes.’ The report also notes: ‘Members of Bajwa’s immediate and extended family started a new international business, shifted capital abroad, and bought foreign properties. In this process, a young woman from Lahore became a billionaire nine days prior to becoming the daughter-in-law of the COAS.’ These are merely small parts of the widely read document, which has since been removed from circulation. The report will now become folklore in Pakistan. However, what he has done is no different from his predecessors, when it comes to land acquisition. More importantly, he has been a voice of sanity and moderation on relations with India.

India has acted wisely in avoiding comments on Pakistan’s internal developments. UN sanctions on Pakistan by the Financial Action Task Force have ended, thanks to strong Chinese lobbying, and the Biden administration’s acquiescence. Pakistan could well be tempted to step up terrorist activities in J&K and elsewhere in India. But wiser elements in Pakistan would realise that they are already facing increased threats of attacks by Baloch Nationalist Groups and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which represents Pashtun nationalist sentiments across Afghanistan’s borders with Pakistan, apart from tensions within Pakistan’s own Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. People who live in glass houses would be well advised to avoid fomenting tensions in relations with India.

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