At last, the right thing

The Army chief, General Ashfaq Pervaz Kiyani's decision to suspend work on the construction of a new GHQ in Islamabad at a time when the country faces a grave financial crisis, comes as pleasant news. An ISPR statement quoted General Kiyani as saying that the Army shared the nation's quest for economic stability through a spirit of sacrifice, which is in line with his frequent assertions that the Army needs public support in order to perform its duties.
Indeed, no army can perform its professional duties well without the love, respect and full backing of its people. Equally important is the fact that no country can earn respect in the comity of nations without attaining economic progress and prosperity within.
The construction of a new GHQ has long been generating public criticism and disapproval. Though the idea of shifting the headquarters is pretty old, it was not until September 2004 that General Musharraf inaugurated the project; proper work started only last year drawing a lot of public criticism.
Those finding fault with it point out that aside from a huge cost of construction - an estimated Rs 60 billion - the land was being handed to the Army at a nominal price. As per the calculations worked out by Senators Farhatullah Babar and Enver Baig soon after the project's inauguration, land worth Rs 505.296 billion was being given away for only Rs 842 million, at a loss of nearly 500 billion rupees to the Capital Development Authority.
It also meant creation of restricted areas at the expense of public convenience. These concerns raised the question: is it really necessary to shift the headquarters from Rawalpindi to Islamabad along with its elaborate support structure? Notably, the stated rationale for the project is creation of an effective communication system between the three services.
It is not a very convincing reason in view of the fact that in this age of communication, physical proximity offers little advantage. Some of the criticism, it needs to be recognised, springs from resentment related to two unpleasant Pakistani realities: one of repeated military interventions in politics; and the other is the low priority public welfare subjects such as education and healthcare get vis-à-vis military requirements in annual budgetary allocations.
In fact, Pakistan's poor standing on social indicators is often blamed - rightly so - on its grossly disproportionate military spending. Now that the country is in dire economic straits, it is only appropriate that the military should review its needs and cut expenditure wherever possible. General Kiyani has made a good beginning. His gesture deserves a hearty applause.