Re: Niyyat of a General
Zuberi, i want to put the record straight for this plot and land system in army.
No one pays a dime for these plots in Army till the time he is alloted one. After allotment he pays installments for the price. It is due to the development practices of the D.H.A that the prices sky rocket and one is compensated. Government does not put a single anna in the D.H.A. so D.H.A is just like any other cooperative society run by organizations but it is legally backed by ordnances pushed by military rulers and is managed institutionally. Bahria is one example which fetches the same for its plots because of better management.
The deductions you are talking about are for A.W.H.S or Army Welfare Housing Society. Officers become members and pay a small amount all their service and in the end pay the remaining lumpsum from their gratiuity or D.S.O.P or Defense Services Provident Fund. The plots are handled by W&R i.e Welfare & Rehabilitation Directorate while these houses are handled by Housing Directorate. So they are separate schemes. Both organizations are well managed and therefore good colonies always fetch good prices. The land acquired for plots and houses is from market and not the government land as speculated by some people. so this should form a role model for other organization.
An officer gets his first plot in D.H.A once he has done 15 years of service with army while he gets his second on completion of 25 years and 28 years and so on. The problem starts in General Ranks once they get farm lands on 100 years lease and commercial plots in D.H.A etc.
This plot scheme was introduced by General Musharraf to divert the attention of Army officers and men (yes every JCO gets a plot in D.H.A of 5 marlas and Subedar Major a plot of 8 Marlas) from the discontment generated because of very hard life and very less pay. It is rather better to increase the pay to special groups like all these NESCOM and Atomic Energy and other organization employes are getting. This plot system does not raise the standard of life and creates more problems that one who is alloted a plot in D.H.A Lahore gets better price than the one who gets in D.H.A Islamabad. so better is to stop it and compensate the army by raising the pay. Now all officers in pindi are all time talking of plots. The attention is diverted from professionalism.
See the after effects. The officers doing good in their profession may be working hard but the ones who are left behind are into plots and shares. In GHQ, it is famous that other than Military Operations, Military Intelligence, Military Secretary and another handful of offices, rest all are more busy in stock exchange than their work. Grade 2 officers only sign the files once there is break in trading otherwise they are busy on the phone with their brokers or using internet based trading halls. Till corps HQ the work is smooth but GHQ is a big bottleneck. All these officers once retire have developed enough understanding into the land business and they have good contacts in army with the people who will get plots in future and may be wanting to sell them so they all become estate agents themselves or work for them. see the classified page for yourself.
The army is more into "tea breaks" and ceremonies than training for war and it is very sad.
Well summed up MKF.
And this is not much any diff from what I mean or keep saying in these discussions on army land issues.
In other words, overall this is also more or less what I say too.
However some points, like the 'tea breaks' though a part of army culture and a bad tradition when in excess, the comment that army is about tea breaks and no training is a bit too much. Which dept in Pakistan is free from tea breaks? Which dept trains more than the army? Which dept has better organized ceremonies? Which dept has better productive performance? Customs? Police? Tax? Dist Mgmt? Legal?