We are neither questioning strength nor character or intention of jawans. But as taxpayers, we do have right to know.
KARACHI: This is in response to Ayesha Siddiqa’s article titled “Spilling the beans,” published in these pages on July 3. The noted author raised a serious issue, when she referred to “the need for institutionalising accountability in military decision-making”, while speaking with reference to the recent comments by former DG ISPR Major General (retd) Athar Abbas through which he revealed that the former army chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, was single-handedly responsible for the four-year delay in launching a military operation in North Waziristan to flush out extremists.
Ever since independence, our armed forces have been a state unto itself, with virtually no civilian control or oversight on their operational, intelligence-gathering or financial performance. For years, a poor country like ours has earmarked hundreds of billions of rupees for defence spending, with practically no results to show for it. Are we supposed to seek solace in the latest addition to the nuclear arsenal, or the purchase of yet another batch of fighter jets, while fundamentalists are blowing themselves up in airports and vegetable markets alike?
As expected, critics have already started honking the ‘national security’ horn to dissuade criticism stemming from the latest revelation, and are questioning the ‘intentions’ of the former DG ISPR. One would think that given the remarkable increase in militant activity since 2008, we would be given the leverage to discuss this issue more openly and, where necessary, not be afraid to apportion blame. How come it is always the drone strikes that are pointed towards as the major reason behind increased militancy, and not the state’s decision to hold back from forcefully dealing with the situation? But even if one were to go with the ‘national security’ argument, are we permitted to at least use this opportunity to put in place an accountability mechanism that deals with the financial irregularities being committed in the military’s sphere? In her book, Military Inc., Ms Siddiqa had herself put forward an educated guess of the military’s private assets at $20 billion. And this was in 2007. Perhaps, this time around, the issue for the need of accountability in our military would be able to survive the goldfish’s equivalent of the attention span of our media, and would lead to serious debate.
For once, criticism was lent to the military by someone from the military itself, and not by the usual suspects — such as the liberal voices in the media and the left-of-centre politicians. We are neither questioning the strength nor the character or the intention of our jawans. But as taxpayers, we do have the right to know that even the laughably negligent level of accountability that exists for politicians and bureaucrats is also in place for our armed forces.
Syed Mehdi
Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
