A Pakistani General is worth Rs 500 million!
An online interview with Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha has revealed that Pakistani Generals are worth Rs 500 million each. In this interview, conducted by despardes.com’s Editor-in-Chief Irshad Salim, Dr. Siddiqa tells us how the Pakistani military establishment has systematically looted the country. That they are no more than thieves. No wonder Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha’s book Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy
Its not just the book, Musharaff has come down on the media with a heavy hand, which makes one suspect that the media was never really free in the first place. People protested and now Musharaff has decided not to go ahead with the ordinance that would have muzzled the freedom of the electronic media. But I can’t help feeling that this climbdown is an eyewash and that he has come to some sort of agreement with the media…he will give some concessions in return for some sort of self censorship.
After reading Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha’s interview one realises how much the General has to hide. And I must thank one of my readers for directing me to this interview. He lives in the US.
In her book Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha has written about Pakistani military business operations. From her experience in working as a civil servant in Pakistan she found out that the Pakistani army has amassed great wealth and that the military has become “predatory engaging in political and economic predation.”
One way its been done is by amassing land. 10 percent of all land, according to the 1912 Colonization of Land Act, is allotted to the military. On paper this land is meant for operational purposes only, but apparently the land has been misappropriated and used as personal land.
Dr. Siddiqa has accused the Pakistan army of running a complete ‘side economy’ which includes not just real estate, but also ‘ businesses done by subsidiaries, organizations and individuals.” According to her, this economy could be around 4% of GDP and their share in private sector assets is about 7-10 percent. In crores this is worth about Rs 200 billion and this is not counting the real estate. This is the largest ownership by any single group.
But why should the Army do this? To keep it financially independent! Being dependent on civilian sources for finances is risky if the Army wants to remain in power. Its a vicious circle. They needed the financial autonomy to stick to power and then the financial motive became a strong reason to stay in power. Dr. Siddiqa says that a full general is worth Rs 500 million (Rs. 50 crore) plus (say £5 million or US$9.8 million).
That was just the gist of her interview. For more details you can read here.
The lady’s background:
Her Brief Bio:
She did her doctorate from King’s College, London in 1996 and has worked on issues varying from military expenditure, defence decision-making, nuclear deterrence, arms procurement, arms production to civil-military relations in South Asia. She is also a Ford Fellow and more recently Pakistan Scholar at t he Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.
She began her professional career with the Pakistan navy as the Director of Naval Research, making her the first civilian and woman to work at that position in Pakistan’s defence establishment. She writes for various international journals such as: Journal of Asian Affairs, Journal of the European Institute of Asian Studies, Jane’s Defence Weekly and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Her major publication to date is the book Pakistan’s Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99: In Search of a Policy (Palgrave Press, 2001).
The commentator who sent me this interview adds:
1· Start a movement to oust the ARMY from political power.
2· Create a method to elect an honest leadership both in PPP, Muslim League, MQM, and other parties.
3· Have proper elections.
4· Control the asset distribution by the ARMY Mafia. A proper regulated system should be devised.
5· Control the Assets of the Fauji Foundation and open the books to proper audit.
6· Perks such as land, plot gifts should be controlled or perhaps banned.
7· Make laws of severe punishment for the Generals to stop them from taking political power and that their prime duty should be Defense ALONE.
8· Start investigations into the lootings by the Army Generals especially the Core Commanders (including the millionaire Core Commander Lahore who has benefited most recently).
Related Reading: Is Mush all that bad?
The police attack on Geo TV office in Pakistan
The failed states Index
A wide angle view of India 
Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha is well known Army critic . Instead of crapping about Army all the time i am keen to know her views regarding so called democratic leaders who are worst money making machines.
It could be the power players in the armed forces in pakistan who loot the country and line their own pockets in the bargain. In India, the armed forces have never ever enjoyed the level of autonomy and power that makes it possible for them to reach this level of corruption. However, in India we have the power players in the state and central govt who are equally corrupt.
Who hasn’t heard of govt officials in key capacities being able to afford lifestyles far far beyond what their pay packet would seem to afford. Point is – corruption will occur in whichever segment has the control of the resources.
Lol, Indians talking about freedom of the media? We all know how self censoring the Indian media is. Pakistani media is much more independent.
About Ayesha’s Milbus, the military industrial complex theory is nothing new. And by the way, most of the inventions that came into the civilian world were first developed by the military. Man reached Space (V2 rocket invented during WW2), Even Modern Surgery was pioneered by the invention of the Gun, in fact the first Modern Surgical hospital was a military one. Pakistan WILL never accept Indian hegemony in this region. Even though I am against Dictatorship but it is true that Pakistan has developed economically by leaps and bounds in these 8 years of Mushurruf. If only he stops courting corrupt politicians like the Pir of London, Mahturma Corrupto, Bald Sharif and the Mumbling Moron of Gujarat, Chaudry Shujaat (the autistic), Pakistan would become really prosperous.
I do not know about the freedom of the Pakistani media but I agree with the member 100% that Indian media is also a highly shackled media. In my opinion and experience, Indian media is merely a voice-hailer of the indian govt and most of its reportings are censored to keep the govt babus and the politicians happy.
Am not sure I understand the comment regarding indian media being more self-censored than pakistani media. I don’t know enough about pakistani media to comment, but i’d have thought that a theocratic country under governance by the military (or rather, in a scenario where the military has significant control over resources), where significant parts of the country still exist under local tribal law, where the key nuclear scientist was caught peddling key strategic secrets…..in such a country I find it hard to believe that the media is entirely independent in its opinion making, without much external auditing or censorship from the powers that be. At the very least, the islamic hard liners would have some implicit influence over what is represented by the media.
True, the indian media publishes what it thinks will sell, what will appeal to its audience. But then again, tell me any media in the world that does not base at least some of its publishing decisons / strategy on aspects like ratings, viewership, impact on advertising clientale etc.
Ofcourse you are right Phantom, the Indian media is free, much much more than Pak media. But there are people who are jealous of our system. Or perhaps they really feel that military rule is best for Pakistan. Whichever it is, I think people get the government they deserve.
Also remember that for many years Pak media has been India bashing (now the responsible papers don’t do it anymore) and this has affected the average man who has no access to real news from India. Some people in Pak have no idea what life is like in India. How fantastic it is as compared to life in Pakistan! The freedom of the press, the freedom to protest, freedom to vote, form political parties, number of women in the workplace etc etc!
I feel that however bad it makes people feel, they should acknowledge the facts. Thats the way to get ahead. To say that Pak media is free as compared to Indian media is a false statement.
How can you say that the Indian media is free, to a greater extent, than Pakistani media? This is a mere subjective statement based on emotion and value-judgement. Do you not recognise the role of Pakistani media during the judiciary crisis? They received dozens of death threats especially from a political party (MQM) which is funded and provided with firepower by India (RAW); this is another example of Indian government failure. For example, on May 12 MQM workers killed fifty innocent people by firing on the streets of Karachi even then the media was showing live coverage and they even got shot at but they resisted.
The only success of the Indian media is to create propaganda!! They blame Pakistan for every blast, any terrorist activity etc. This is ridiculous! They just accuse us of baseless allegations all the time e.g. the ISI is protecting Dawood Ibrahim. He is in Dubai for God sake!!!!
As far as anyone bring jealous of your system goes, this is the most preposterous viewpoint. You are much more corrupt than Pakistan. All your bureaucrats, politicians etc. Also, as a country you will fail if you do not stop this trend of increasing corruption. Don’t believe me? A report by an Indian Commissioner shows that India is at number 75 for corruption and Pakistan is at number 69 ( the higher the number the greater the corruption). Search for it on Yahoo and you will find it.
There is less freedom in India compared to Pakistan especially for woman. Issues of rape and domestic violence are rampant there, with rates rising all the time. Statistics show that the chance of a woman being raped, tortured and humiliated in India is 100:1 when compared to Pakistan. As long as the freedom of protesting goes, dozens of people are injured and killed in protests aren’t they? The protests are much more violent with the police becoming trigger-happy at most occasions resulting in hundreds of casualties. This does happen in Pakistan though to a much lesser extent. And I could go on and on!!!
Thus, it is suffice to say that Indian system is much worse than the Pakistani system (military rule or not) and the media of the latter is much more accomplished and it enjoys freedom (especially now) which the Indian media cannot even think of achieving.
Faahid, thank you for commenting here. Look, this argument can be endless and as you rightly said subjective!
While I do agree that the role of the media during the judiciary crisis in Pak was exemplary, I cannot agree on the other aspects you mentioned. the statement about women…it is clear that you have never been to India! girls here roam around freely, and in skimpy clothes too, they are found in offices everywhere, and in Mumbai return home alone at night. women here also live alone in the cities, couples canoodle in parks…
I think perhaps you have not been to India. The villages are dfferent ofcourse. Also do not judge the safety of India by one city…Delhi.
southern cities are much safer..
also on this same blog there is an article on the corruption index by a reliable agency, I do not think there is any doubt about the corruption angle.
And what you think is propaganda may not be propaganda to a lot of people here. And no, none of us believe that our system and life here is worse.
however this is not to offend you in any way…
If I have hurt your feelings, I opologize. This is just my opinion and yes I believe it.
I have no idea why Pakistanis feel that they are better off than in India, okay, if you say they are not jealous. But then I wonder why. the only reason I said jealous is because I came across several instances of pakistanis (only those who live abroad) bashing bollywood…I was surprised, considering that bollywood with all its faults is better than the pakistani film industry. And this were not hate sites, but educated people! That was how i reached that conclusion…
In conclusion, if the idea that people in India, a democratic country always, where people are allowed to make a public ruckus, and hold demonstrations and generally say and do whatever they want are living a worse life than people in Pakistan seems wrong and false to you, I cannot agree.
p.s. and please do not believe that Dawood is not being protected by Pakistan or that pakistan has nothing to do with blasts here. This has been well documented, but the Pakistani people have nothing to do with it! Its just a handful of terrorists and its again well documented that there are terrorists camp in the north western regions of Pakistan. I am not saying that people in India are not involved, the guys here go to pakistan to get training! Again, this is not against the people of Pakistan at all, please understand. Its just a handful of evil people!
This issue is serious and I don’t think pride about one’s country should make one deny it. I too am proud of India but on this blog I criticize the country all the time…this is not a question my country is better than yours. Both our countries have problems and we need to face them and make our countries stronger, as strong as the developed countries. India has a long way to go, and there is no way that I am going to deny its problems.
Party in power has always been the target of criticism — and this time its the Pakistan Army. Our problem is that we are emotional people who like to pursue some kind of adventurism at all times. Why can’t we talk about the economic and social development that Musharraf has brought about?? What about the freedom granted to media in these last 10 years?? Our nation lacks positivity today. I would suggest Dr. Ayesha to write another book as a series — this time about our dear politicians and their corruption. I’m sure there will a lot more to write. Having said that, being a Pakistani, I’m also for restoration of democracy in Pakistan, yet I salute our Military and their great management, which has brought our country and in turn themselves this “MULBUS.”
Last three years ago a german woman came to pakistan for research about social and economy . she finally write the book on pakistani culture and also economy. books name is
” 3 Geems” “Geem= urdu word ” . book summary is that pakistan is only for “3 geems”. ist geem is General , second geem is “Justice” and third geem is “Gageerdar” means lord.
other people are slaves. if they didnot realize ,then they would be lesson to them. acutally purpose of talk is that when country was made. all leader of muslim-leg were lords. no one have concept of hunger. so that was decieve with us that this country is made only for muslim . this country was made only lord generals and justices.
thanks
Pakistan should realize what is plainly obvious to everyone else.It is not India’s equal.It is a fifth its size,nowhere near as competent and effectively living on western aid.
Its constant craving to share the limelight with India as an equal will bankrupt it just like the USSR went belly up trying to maintain parity with the West.
It should concede itself with what it is a middling islamic power in the same class as Iran,Egypt or Turkey.
I by the way have something of a reputation over here of badgering indians so on that score alone I qualify as an impartial western observer.
Much to their credit though they haven’t blocked me or anything just argued with me till the cows came home 🙂
Krenim,
//…it is a middling islamic power in the same class as Iran,Egypt or Turkey…//
I don’t know about contemporary Iran, but Egypt and Turkey are certainly way ahead of Pakistan in at least the indicators of social development, especially vis-à-vis women’s empowerment.
@ krenim:
Thanks. An impartial observer was needed. 🙂
As for ‘badgering’ as you call it, you are welcome! I have never blocked anyone for disagreeing with me.
vivek:
I was speaking strictly in military and total GDP terms not per capita.Turkey though is streets ahead of other islamic countries socially.It bans the head scarf because wearing it violates their secular constitution!
Iran is one of the classic alternate history cases if only the shah had remained it would almost certainly been thee power in the middle east and south asia. I mean it potentially export as much oil as Saudi arabia and as much gas as russia and has a glorious 4000 year culture to boot.Alas!Though very good for you guys all the same 🙂 the last thing you need is an islamic superpower to your west.
Krenim,
Oh, if it is only sabre and lucre on which we are focussed, I withdraw from the debate.
Military Inc was NEVER banned in Pakistan. This is a joke. It was a best seller… and sold several editions within Pakistan within the first few weeks of its publication.
Also… Vivek will find that Egypt or Turkey aside… women in Pakistan are as empowered as women in India…
He ought to visit Islamabad, Karachi or Lahore. I love the expression of shock on the face of Indians who are proven wrong about their biases and impressions of Pakistan.
LATEST : A refuttal —> “Ayesha Siddiqa’s MILITARY INC: A Deflective and Derogatory Book”
Dr Ayesha Siddiqa’s ‘The Military Inc.’ is a book deflective of reality, highly derogatory and against the very notion of sovereignty. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa launches the book by giving the impression that her intention is to cover the entrepreneurial activities of military worldwide. However, in depth reading reaffirms suspicions that her book massively targets the Pakistan Military and the top echelons of the Armed Forces, most of which are based upon self serving assumptions and intentional hoodwinking. The publication of Dr Ayesha Siddiqa’s own book ‘Military Inc’ in 2007, in President Musharraf’s era, repudiates her claims to term the military rule as manipulative and suppressive. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa wrote a whole book, to malign a system (MILBUS) whose worth does not exceed 0.8% of Pakistan’s free market economy.
READ THE ARTICLE – REFUTTAL:
http://presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/ or
http://presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/ayesha-siddiqas-military-inc-a-deflective-and-derogatory-book/
In her book, Ayesha Siddiqa FAILS to provide, any concrete evidence that could confirm her allegations, that questionable transfer of wealth is made to individuals connected with armed forces. All she could give in example were the 500 sq yard official plots given to the Generals at the end of their service, as part of their benefits, and hence her ASSUMPTION that a retired general is worth from Rs.150 million to Rs.400 million.
Rarely do critics mention, that nominal deduction from the pay of all military officers are made during their service, in return for a small apartment or a small housing, which is handed over at the time of their retirement. However, this facility is still not available to all retiring servicemen.
Read full article – refuttal:
http://presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/
There are sluggesh among the nation who always find ways to let down theie own people for their fame and little money. like socalled Dr.yaquba
Pakistan as a nation have done such a wonders overs the past few decads that best in media is to let down pakistan .Drs like Yaquba are easy to buy when they want to get green card to live in america being ineligible there and back home…..shame shame
goodluck Pakistan
We trust our God and believe ourselves.
these people have looted our country these military people ….there children study in foreign how come they have so much of money ??? i dont knw why people still support our army …nono of them are promoted if usa does not recomend them … one of my frnd is a brigadier sons there life style is unbelievable .. drinking is coommon …jab paisa aur ayshi ajai to mulk ki kurabi side pe ho jati hai ….hamari army ne to afghanistan kae safeer ko tak nahi chora us ko bhi us ka hawale kar diae kuch dollars kae liae …. and i think zardari is not the real president of pakistan he is just a puppet the real man behing him is kiyani …
Nobody is angel in this game of power and money. But i suppose people of Pakistan have to break there shackles of feudalism, military beauracrasy, establishment, political famillies ruling the poor and the industrail cartels, etc. It is time for such writers to dwell upon some time on the common good of the people and stop sensationalising the news of military corruption once the rulers are the world recognized corrupt couple.
There can be no doubt that Pakistan Army could have earned the respect that armed forces in many other countries have earned in the hearts of their people but for the misplaced ambitions of some of the beasts who were wearing the uniform of Generals in it. The very mindset of Army is now changed and nobody joins this institution for the greater cause of defending the frontiers of this country but to secure one’s future. Now that is ironic.
Besides conquering their own country and vanquishing their own nation, Pakistan Army has been a drainhole for the country’s economy. Just imagine that a staggering increase in the defence budget for 2010 after the salaries of armed forces had been increased 100 percent earlier.
As a young boy, I had always aspired to join the army but now I feel that it is better to retain some human qualities than join an organization which takes everything that makes one a human being.
Check this out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8287264.stm
I am fully agrees with Dr Ayesha Siddiqa
Must be put on charge as pakistan laws.
Me too. Pakistan army is the worst corrupt organization on this planet.
Each General gets several square miles of Land , I have met Generals who have thousands of acres of land in Sri Lanka ! How is that possible?
Millions of dollars in kickbacks are taken after orders to western conglomerates.
All the politicians are stooges of the military.
A military doctor once told me, that she was flown to see a generals wife who had just passed extrusive gas.
Our army has no shame. Shame on you our army officers. Shame on you.
Pakistan army is the most corrupt ever since 1971. It’s corruption dates back to 1971 when the Bangladesh Liberation war took place and the army completed a genocide of 300,000 people across Bangladesh (formerly known as East Pakistan) and these shamful, harmful and oppressive leaders have always done harm to the country. General and president Yahya Khan was the mastermind behind this operation and him and his colleagues are criminals to humanity.
Worst is that every officer has an army of 10 servants and 4 soldiers for protection. Our army has always done damage to our people and the nation. Man, I am sure if Qaideazam would be alive today and see all this, he would say, “Damn, I have done the worst mistake in life by founding Pakistan.”
Pakistan army has done toooo much harm to our nation and it is because of them that we civilians are suffering toooo much.
Pakistan army has done harm to Pakistan. Shame to Pakistan army.
Corruption is cancer for all the nation, authrise persons may please be investigate, in favoir of nation.
America and Canada are the world’s richest countries, yet the net worth of army generals averages only 50 million dollars ( 5 crore rupees) in north America.
Pakistan army generals are more than 10 times richer than America’s army generals.No wonder a child hood friend of mine, who is retired military high up in Pakistan army refused to even talk or meet me in Pakistan during my visit there, let alone visit him in his lavish house there.. Even world class engineers in Canada or US are not worth shoe dust of those next to GOD military high ups in Pakistan.
Pakistan army high ups even top most US presidents or parliamentary members of US or Canada.
No wonder these Pak military high ups transfer most wealth to US and educate their kids in north America and themselves even live more prospErous than wealthy in Canada or US.If they do not get the top jobs in Pakistan after retirement, Pakistan is not worth living for them and they are top wealthy in America with the wealth they bring to north America.
When I visit Pakistan every year from Canada, I stay away and humble from even my child hood friends who, as Pak military high ups, now deign even educated people as they as military high ups master and control every one in Pakistan including the government there.
The second line of my letter should read 0.50 million dollars ( 5 crore rupees) as net worth of Canadian or American army general on the average and is reported every where on internet. Sorry for this mistake by me..
This discussion is only about comparing the net worth of Pakistan army generals with American or Canadian army generals (0.500 million dollars or 5 crore rupees for American or Canadian generals verses 5 million dollars or 50 crore rupees for Pakistani army generals. But only the fools would hate their own military no matter how they behave with their civilians.
Ibelieve, the most important thing is still loving your own army and stress for peace and peace only within the country and outside.We must stress for peace amongst all muslims in middle East as peace is all we need. Our armed forces and civilians do and must love all Turks, Iranians and Arabs and we must strive hard that nothing wrong goes in there to drift towards inter Islamic wars.Even America settled with Russia for peace in Syria very recently.
Middle East oil is very sensitive for peace reasons. God forbid, if there is war in or around Persian Gulf, oil resource could get hit and the world ends up with no or forbidden cost remediation.When I was engineering consultant with Canadian Energy, I did consulting on just one equipment in gas process that cost 20 million dollars in repairs and hefty engineering and some engineering cost.British Petroleum had some spills near America and it cost 20 billion dollrs in remediation. In middle East near Iran or Saudi Arabi or UAE, it could do damages to the tones of trillions of dollars and foolish war there could be beyond remediation loss of oil.And we pray to ALLAH that nukes are never used there as all oil, oil fields could be radiated for never ever again oil sales to the world. Even all the world’s wealth may not be enough to remedify the radiated oil.
Then there will be no money for middle East people, no money for Pakistan people and Pak army generals.I can write about engineering details of what could happen to middle East oil in different modes of must be forbidden modes of any war, conventional or GOD forbid the nuclear modes.
Peace is all we need and let us all think of peace and love our Arab, Turkish and Iranian brothers and pray for peace amongst all of us.
For net worth comparison of Paks, the net worth of Only Zardari Or Nawaz Sharif is worth more than Pakistan’s all army generals(about 400)in history, who are wortn 500m x 400 = 2 billion dollars all put together. Much of money possessed by Pak generals was given to them by friendly countries for counter terror efforts. American or Canadian generals don’t get that and their average worth of half million dollars include the house in which they live in.
So, the average worth of army generals in America or Canada is not much more than most average workers in America or Canada. This makes every body respect every body else on equal basis.
Main thing is to thank our Pak army if they keep peace for us. War is very ugly thing and we love those who help maintaining peace.
When I first migrated to Canada in 1966 as of small age, I started my first job in International Nickel, which produced 90 percent of the world’s Nickel. I had some old Russian and Germans worked with me and they had migrated to Canada after the WW2. I mentioned to them about 1965 war between India and Pakistan. They told me that loss of 5000 military men by India and Pakistan eacch in two weeks war made it look nothing more than border skirmishes. They told me that for 5 or 6 years, each day there were 5000 – 6000 dead German bodies and 17,000 dead Russian dead bodies coming to be mourned from war fronts.
That made me to cosole that we had small wars and they ended quick– THANKS ALLAH. May be my Russians and German colligues were right to say about our short wars.
In 1971 war time, I was student of chemical engineering in Canada and got my degree in 1973.I prayed for peace and then too the war had quick end.
So, we must love peace and money has no importance to peace, which is the dearest thing to love.
I love to see that Paks have peace and I visit Pak several months each year since my retirement 8 years ago as consultant engineer in oil and gas field.
I pray for peace for Pak army and Pak nation.
I think that the stability, security and survival of Pakistan is more important than blaming the wealthy civilian or military high ups.Many outside powers are hell bent to de-stabilize Pak. Even Panama scandal is part of that big plan to de-stabilize Pak.
I would wish for internal harmony amongst all Paks– civilian and military to see Pakistan as stable country.In fighting is bad for any nation.