Those who mauled the constitution (II)

MCLEAN: This is with reference to Syed Masudul Hassan’s article “Those who mauled the constitution”. I wonder why Musharraf was “unpopular” with the army because of his pro-American policies. After all, the military benefited enormously from that “tilt”. Billions of dollars were given to the country as a result of the decision taken post-9/11. IMF money was granted with high access (in several multiples of our quota), World Bank and Asian Development Bank money fuelled the economy and retired servicemen got cushy jobs in every government department and in embassies overseas.

I don’t see what the military complains about. With an allocation of Rs 670 billion or so under the budget, they have little reason to carp. Moreover, they just received their Block D F-16s with the most advanced avionics with helicopter gunships. Other deadly missiles and armaments will follow — with no accounting on how they are procured.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2010.