Re: Inside Pakistan’s Military Inc
I believe Pakistan is the only country in the world to have such a large involvement of the military in business.
Musharraf has achieved one thing quite remarkable, it was almost universally believed 10 years ago that the Army runs things better than civilians, since Musharraf became COAS we’ve had Army involvement in everything from WAPDA to the cricket team and overwhelmingly the results have been at best below average and at worst even worse than civilian led. That belief has been shattered…
The consequences of prolonged army involvement in politics is now an accepted fact by even by military personnel, sadly they only articulate it once they are out of service:
Gen. Arif says: “Successive martial laws eroded state institutions from within. They retarded the growth of democracy and democratic tradition… A democratic order does not guarantee good government. Moral, material and intellectual corruption is not an uncommon phenomenon in democratic societies. Despite this drawback, a democratic dispensation is superior to military rule because it has an inbuilt and institutionalised process of accountability. A representative government is perceived to function on the concept of collective wisdom and joint responsibility, unlike martial law which is a one-man rule… On balance, military indugence in national affairs weakened not only the country and the political system but also the military itself.”