Would these generals have been as reckless in investing their own money in risky stocks?
LAHORE: Three former generals of the Pakistan Army have been restored to uniform to face a court martial for their alleged illegal act of borrowing billions from commercial banks at exorbitant rates and investing them in the stock market when they were part of the National Logistics Cell (NLC). Not only are they accused of borrowing from commercial banks, they have also been accused of investing pensioners’ funds in volatile bourses. As a result, the NLC suffered a loss of Rs1.8 billion. When the Public Accounts Committee raised the alarm, the army decided to restore the generals into service so that they could stand trial in a military court. Why try them in military courts when they could be tried in the civil courts where bureaucrats and politicians are tried? Why this preferential treatment for generals?
Would these generals have been as reckless in investing their own money in risky stocks? If not, why did they then sink public money and pensioners’ funds in the stock market? Instead of putting them through a military trial, the generals may as well be set free as that’s what the military court is likely to do. Why tax public sensibilities? What would have happened to such men in neighbouring India? They would have been stripped of their assets to pay back to the state.
Professor Fajune Pirzada
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2012.
