US Needs to Reconsider an Army That Drives Its Posh SUVs Oiled By Chinese Money; This Is Bad News - Whether In Mandarin, Punjabi Or English
By
Tara Kartha
8 December,
2020
An
interesting new legislation has recently been passed in the Pakistan National
Assembly. This law proposes to create a China Pakistan Economic Corridor
Authority that would essentially take control of the billion dollar CPEC away
from the civilian bureaucracy to the Pakistan Army. Most democracies would have
a virtual army of bureaucrats and auditors to handle such a project. But not in
Pakistan, where the creation of an army-run supranational authority is in line
with other actions, which have put the country so close to army rule that it’s
becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference.
A file
image of Pakistan's military officials | Photo: @OfficialDGISPR | Twitter
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Policy
makers in India and elsewhere, long used to the Pakistani ‘military
establishment’, would normally shrug their shoulders and hope for the best. But
there’s a difference this time round. All of this is being powered by Chinese
money. Which means that Beijing has just bought itself an army, with a State
attached.
Governance
and Bureaucracy
At one
level, it is true that near continuous military dominance has led to army men,
both serving and retired, being co-opted into comfortable posts in Pakistan’s
bureaucracy. However, even democratically elected leaders like Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto did not scruple to use lateral induction to appoint army men to some 83
posts at various levels. Zia-ul-Haq went a step further, creating a Defence
Services Selection Board to bring in pliant service officers into his
government. Under General Pervez Musharraf, the ‘National Reconstruction
Bureau’ route brought in officers at every level, with the general presumption
that the average military officer was better than his civilian counterpart.
But the
Imran Khan government has outstripped all others in filling civilian posts with
military officers. A recent report highlights the control of the military over
the civilian government — the Pakistan International Airlines is headed by an Air
Marshal, heads of the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority include a
Major General and a Brigadier, five federal ministers are closely linked to the
military including Interior Minister Brigadier Ejaz Shah, the chairman of Port
Qasim Authority is a retired Rear Admiral, and the Water and Power Development
Authority is led by a retired Lt Gen, as was the Sui Southern Gas Company until
recently. The armed forces are now everywhere, and they have never had it so
good. Particularly since nearly all of these departments are also seeing
Chinese investment.
Legislation
Takes This Further
Not content
with this, legislation has been introduced in Parliament that further erodes
political power. This includes the legislation to take the Pakistan Maritime Security
Agency (PMSA), which operates directly opposite Indian waters, out of the
control of the Prime Minister’s Office, apparently because the government
doesn’t want this high office to be involved in ‘trivial’ matters. Then there
was the amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, ostensibly to satisfy
the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which provides, among other things,
power to arrest without warrant, and vastly increases the powers of the
National Accountability Bureau and other investigating agencies. Clearly, the intention was to pressurise
opposition leaders into submission.
Then there
are new laws to control social media, which gives the State unfettered power to
decide what construes ‘extremism’ or what may be considered ‘objectionable’. To
add to this are arrests of major media personalities such as Shakil ur Rehman,
and intimidation of the Dawn group among
others, which has ensured that the media has been silenced. Parliament
virtually tamed, the usually courageous media gagged, and social media
fettered. There is not a lot left.
National
Level Project Management
Then
there’s the CPEC itself. In 2015, the Pakistan Army tried to grab the project,
but was frustrated by then-Nawaz Sharif government. However, PM Imran Khan gave
in completely. The CPEC was brought
under the army by a presidential order in 2019. The ‘CPEC Authority’ was headed
by Gen. (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa, and was in that capacity, dealing directly
with the Chinese government and companies involved.
In August
2020, the scandal broke. Bajwa was found to have assets worth billions in the
US and in Pakistan. As a fact finding report noted, his wife Farrukh Zeba “is
associated with or is a shareholder in 85 companies including 82 foreign
companies (71 in United States, seven in UAE and four in Canada)”, while the
whole family has literally risen from rags to riches, all this as her husband
rose steadily within the Pakistan Army. Despite the scandal breaking loose,
Gen. Bajwa continued to handle all business relating to the CPEC.
With the
presidential order lapsing in May, the new legislation will give the proposed
Authority even more power than before. It can ask for ‘pertinent information’
and ‘assistance or facilitation’ from any person or office ‘directly or
indirectly’ involved with the CPEC, with provinces required to appoint persons
for this purpose; and powers to investigate a public office holder who does to
cooperate with it. Its officers will also have immunity from the National
Accountability Bureau, and other investigating agencies. Clearly, there’s going
to be no further probing into the riches accrued by its ‘chairman generals’.
The legislation also comes just after Pakistan has approved its most expensive
CPEC project, the $6.8 billion railway upgrade largely financed by China, as
well as $3.9 billion hydropower projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Original
Headline: Pakistan’s love for military now has Chinese money and will soon have
legislative power
Source: The Print
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