'Army managing business of the country'

Seven chapters out of 10 in the book 'Military Inc'- published by Oxford University Press launched at the Lead facility- F-7/4, here on Thursday evening. 'Milibus' has been used in the heading of seven chapters. This may give an idea of the strangle hold the military had over trade and business.
Dr Farrukh Saleem, the first speaker, in his paper, tried to draw attention towards the forays made by defence forces as entrepreneurs of real estate, stock broking, fertiliser, steel, shoes, leasing, technology, paints and housing, which as reflected in the book was their primary focus.
He said Pakistan with the seventh largest army in the world had remained under military rule for years, with the result that military institutions have gained ascendancy over civil institutions.
Dr Saleem wondered why the politicians, who came to power should not have strengthened civil institutions in the same way as the military had done. Because of politicians indifference to this primary duty civil institution had been reduced to nonentity.
Ayesha Siddiqua Agha's book led the reader to the overwhelming question whether democracy was sustainable in Pakistan. However, 'we shall know the answer in the next few days, this being the hour of destiny of Pakistan. The 13-member bench at the Supreme Court was seized with the imbalance between civilian dispensation and military rule.'
Zafar Abbas, Dawn's Resident Editor, reframed the same prosthesis after reading from an E-mail sent by a former military officer, who had said that he ate Fauji cereals, got milk from the military dairy farm, and had his house painted by Bahria, and built his house from an army-building firm.
A complete picture if any of the military strangle holds over commerce and industry. With so much to do, where is the time left for soldiering? Quoting from the late Hamza Alavi's book, Zafar Abbas imagined that only was the military managing business of the country but the GHQ, the root causes, for this imbalance in civil military equation, was also managing 'our' lives. Therefore, in his opinion, Ayesha deserved people's support for bringing open all that so skillfully in her present book.
Referring to past events Muslim League politician Ahsan Iqbal said that generals had come to power to save themselves. The first Constituent Assembly was dismissed in October 1954 at the behest of General Ayub Khan, then defence minister. Ayub felt threatened when Iskander Mirza had started inviting top officers to tea.
In 1977, General Ziaul Haq seized power when both the PPP and the Opposition had agreed to hold new election. The same situation was repeated in October 1999 after a General felt being threatened with ouster. There was nothing wrong with the country at that time.
Ahsan Iqbal said he found the idea of the book Military Inc reflected in the Hamudur Commission Report, which was full of illustrations regarding moral degeneration, then prevalent. In the prevailing circumstances, Ahsan Iqbal felt threatened as a citizen. However, he said he drew inspiration from the events after March 9, that he called a turning point in history to which citizens must respond and 'grasp the situation'. When he came to speak, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan was wildly cheered for his bold stand as the Chief Justice's legal aide.
Recalling his thesis which Aitzaz said he had been airing since 1981, he repeated that military after seizing power of the country's administration since 1958 had replaced the welfare concept of doing service to citizens and had transplanted it with the concept of transforming Pakistan as a national security state. This new role necessitated creation of enemies. The recent court case was an attempt to free the country from ransom.
In this regard he also remarked how necessary it was to file affidavit to present true picture of what happened on March 9 because General Musharraf was giving out misinterpretations of what happened on that day.
The author, Ayesha, stated that she had been persuaded by many friends not to write the book or at least not to have it published. Nevertheless, she had written the book for her country's sake and for the sake of people. She also thanked Oxford University Press for having the courage to publish it.
A large overflow of Ayesha's admirers were seen at the Leads premises where the book was launched, impromptu, after Islamabad Club, the scheduled venue, withdrew the permission.
Gulmina Bilal, who introduced the book at the Leads premises referred to this refusal and remarked that a number of hotels had been asked not to allow their facility for any function except marriage ceremony, over the next two days.