Military raj

Major General (retd) Inayatullah Khan Niazi’s career record would easily put the most successful Pakistani bureaucrat to shame. Retirin...

Major General (retd) Inayatullah Khan Niazi’s career record would easily put the most successful Pakistani bureaucrat to shame. Retiring from the army some five years ago, Niazi is not only still engaged in the service of the government but boasts a diversity of portfolios that must make him the world’s most versatile professional.

He was director general (DG), Intelligence Bureau in 1998 from where he was transferred as DG, Federal Investigation Agency when General Pervez Musharraf took over in October 1999.

In 2000, Niazi was posted as deputy chairman, National Accountability Bureau. In 2001, he was appointed chairman, NAFDEC and later in the year as chairman, Evacuee Trust Property Board. Finally, he was appointed chairman, Federal Land Commission in December 2002, a post he holds to this day.

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Civilian bureaucrats are baffled at the wide-ranging capabilities of a man who failed to win promotion to the rank of a lieutenant general.

Niazi is by no means alone. In fact, he is one of thousands of retired and serving military officials working on civilian posts since the military coup of October 1999. According to defence ministry figures, 513 serving military officials have been posted on top civilian slots since the coup.

Defence Minister Rao Sikander said on the floor of the National Assembly on September 8 that there were no plans to repatriate serving military officials back to their parent organisation.

But while the elected government’s reluctance to tackle this sensitive issue is easily understood, it is far more difficult to make sense of the opposition. It has been crying itself hoarse against General Musharraf’s dual role as a uniformed president, but it has done nothing to tackle what observers describe as the ‘‘real martial law’’.

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From the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to all major ministries and departments, army officers occupy the top slots and have made the civilian bureaucrats’ seniority list meaningless.

NAB, for example, has a total strength of 1,000 personnel countrywide and, at 10 per cent, the armed forces’ quota comes to 100. However, officials within NAB admit military officials exceed the quota limit by more than twice as much.

Musharraf’s critics cite such examples as a direct negation of the fifth point in his so-called reform agenda, which promises depoliticisation of state institutions. ‘‘On the contrary, he has heavily militarised all state institutions,’’ says a senior bureaucrat.

While 500-plus officers are currently occupying civilian posts, there are more than 700 civilian bureaucrats awaiting postings.

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Interestingly, even government-financed think tanks are teeming with officers from the armed forces. The Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad, once considered a very impartial think tank, now boasts 32 retired army officers in its total strength of 50.

The institute’s chief, Major General (retd) Jamshed Ayaz, is a former ISI officer who has brought the agency’s culture into what is essentially an academic body. Even the material he receives from international conferences and seminars is first whetted by the ISI before being included in the institute’s library. The institute’s secretary, meanwhile, is a retired colonel, aged 77.

In response to a question tabled in the Senate, MNA Raza Hiraj, who is in charge of the Establishment Division, said 1,027 serving and retired army officers had been appointed to civilian posts since October 1999. Of these, more than half continue to serve, despite the constitution of an elected government. (Herald)

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FROM THE KHAKI BRIGADE