Both the newly elected government and the GHQ are finally on the same page as regards the issue of militarymen serving in civilian departments, which is nice except for some aberrations that remain. Last week the GHQ announced, as per an earlier statement by the Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kiyani, to recall all militarymen serving in various government and semi-government departments.
Most of the officers, said an official announcement, would go back to the barracks by May 1 and others by the middle of August, by which time the concerned departments must find replacements. The issue has been important enough to find mention in Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's maiden speech in the National Assembly. He said that he wanted all uniformed men to return to the barracks within two weeks' time.
It has been customary for military rulers to install fellow militarymen in various government and semi-government departments, often in top positions, as a way of sharing the spoils of power. This has been going on at the expense of the members of civil bureaucracy.
They have reason, therefore, to be resentful of the practice since it affects their upward career mobility, and also because the two services have entirely different orientations and hence different ways of managing affairs. It is hardly surprising if there exists an uneasy relationship between them, manifesting itself in a negative impact on their work.
Also contentious is the role of retired army officers in various departments and institutions that include premier educational institutions. According to the GHQ spokesman, officers who are retired or about to retire from service would remain eligible for reemployment on three to five years contracts, renewable until the attainment of the government officers' retirement age of 60 years.
Already a large number of such officers are working in important positions, causing much resentment among their competitors. People take strong exception, and rightly so, to retired army officers acting as heads of big public sector organisations, even as university vice chancellors. Of course, no functioning democracy allows such large-scale induction of retired militarymen in civilian institutions.
Indeed, it would be a rarity to find a retired military officer serving as vice chancellor of a major university in any society. The business of fighting and acquisition of knowledge have little in common. It makes little sense, therefore, for us to allow the continuation of this practice. A policy review is in order vis-à-vis retired officers as well.
Given the amount of displeasure the presence of militarymen generates in the public mind in general and members of the bureaucracy in particular, it was only appropriate that the Prime Minister should have wanted to hasten the process of their recall.
He also needs to think about reversing another practice under which successive prime ministers, from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto onwards, have maintained uniformed men as military secretaries and aides-de-camp (ADCs). It, in fact, began with Bhutto who first served as civilian martial law administrator and president before assuming the office of prime minister. He acquired military aides as president and, apparently, liked the aura of pomp and ceremony those officers lent to the seat of power so much that he decided to keep them even as prime minister.
It is ironical, indeed, that this should have become an unquestioned tradition in a country like Pakistan, which has suffered military dictatorships for nearly one-half of its sixty years of existence. The last thing the people here like to see is the presence of uniformed men lurking behind elected, civilian prime ministers.
The world's largest democracy, India, as well as its oldest democracy, Britain, have no such tradition. Prime Minister Gilani, who has expressed a desire to send army officers back to the barracks within the shortest possible time and is also introducing several austerity measures, must rethink the induction of military secretaries and ADCs in his office. Let there be a clear demarcation of military and civilian areas of activity. And the Prime Minister's security detail must be handled by the police in Islamabad and the army-men doing this duty now must also go back to the barracks.
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