Time to Start Asserting Civilian Control
One of the things the new government should look into is to assert itself over the "agencies". The Army budget should be capped and brought under full civilian review. This should be a long term objective.
Hamid Gul, who has confessed to his misdeeds and now Ehtesham Zamir should be charged under the law.
If General Kiani is a professional soldier he would acquisce to this in the interest of nation building and will be remembered for this.
The Army Chief should be under the Defence Minister. The Government should be able to line-item scrutinise the military budget. The Army should return all state lands acquired or confiscated to the provinces. The Army Chief should not be empowered to grant lands to officers. The various trusts should be brought at par with civilian trusts when it comes to taxation. Retired faujis pention should come from the military budget. And more. These are suggestions for long term reform. General Kiani should be made to understand a simple fact. Army exists because there is a country! And a country of 175 million needs find ways to reduce military's disproportionate share of the pie.
POLITICS-PAKISTAN: 'Inter Services Intelligence Interferes in Polls' By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD, Feb 25 (IPS) - A former top official of Pakistan's shadowy but powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has called for the political cell of the agency to be shut down and 'confessed' to having manipulated the 2002 general elections at the behest of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Ehtesham Zamir, who headed the ISI's political cell in 2002 and was a serving major general in the Pakistan army at that time, told 'The News' daily on Saturday that he was ordered by Musharraf to help the 'king's party', the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-i-Azam (PML-Q), to come to power.
Zamir blamed the rout of the PML-Q in the just concluded elections as a ‘’reaction of the unnatural dispensation'' that he helped install in 2002. His confessions follow the disclosures of another retired high-ranking army officer Lt. Gen. Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani that Musharraf ignored the advice of his corps commanders that he stop patronising the PML-Q.
Importantly, Zamir, the former second-highest ranking officer in the ISI has called for the closure of the political cell in the agency, saying it was ‘part of the problem’ for its involvement in forging unnatural alliances that were contrary to public interests.
Hamid Gul, who has confessed to his misdeeds and now Ehtesham Zamir should be charged under the law.
If General Kiani is a professional soldier he would acquisce to this in the interest of nation building and will be remembered for this.
The Army Chief should be under the Defence Minister. The Government should be able to line-item scrutinise the military budget. The Army should return all state lands acquired or confiscated to the provinces. The Army Chief should not be empowered to grant lands to officers. The various trusts should be brought at par with civilian trusts when it comes to taxation. Retired faujis pention should come from the military budget. And more. These are suggestions for long term reform. General Kiani should be made to understand a simple fact. Army exists because there is a country! And a country of 175 million needs find ways to reduce military's disproportionate share of the pie.
POLITICS-PAKISTAN: 'Inter Services Intelligence Interferes in Polls' By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD, Feb 25 (IPS) - A former top official of Pakistan's shadowy but powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has called for the political cell of the agency to be shut down and 'confessed' to having manipulated the 2002 general elections at the behest of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Ehtesham Zamir, who headed the ISI's political cell in 2002 and was a serving major general in the Pakistan army at that time, told 'The News' daily on Saturday that he was ordered by Musharraf to help the 'king's party', the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-i-Azam (PML-Q), to come to power.
Zamir blamed the rout of the PML-Q in the just concluded elections as a ‘’reaction of the unnatural dispensation'' that he helped install in 2002. His confessions follow the disclosures of another retired high-ranking army officer Lt. Gen. Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani that Musharraf ignored the advice of his corps commanders that he stop patronising the PML-Q.
Importantly, Zamir, the former second-highest ranking officer in the ISI has called for the closure of the political cell in the agency, saying it was ‘part of the problem’ for its involvement in forging unnatural alliances that were contrary to public interests.
posted by temporal at 2/25/2008
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