Pakistani military elite chooses profit and privilege over public service

Colombo, Oct 21 (IANS) Pakistan military elite's behaviour is similar to that of the colonial masters as its top brass has built sprawling business empires through entities like the Fauji Foundation and Army Welfare Trust, often choosing profit and privilege over public service, a report has stated.

"Seventy-eight years after the birth of Pakistan, the promise of liberation from colonial rule remains tragically unfulfilled. While the British Empire formally withdrew in 1947, the structures it left behind were not dismantled, they were repurposed. The bureaucratic, military, and judicial institutions crafted by the British to subjugate the subcontinent were preserved and retooled by Pakistan’s post-colonial elite," a report in Sri Lanka's leading newspaper Daily Mirror highlighted.

"Rather than fostering integration, reviving indigenous cultures, or empowering peripheral communities, the state entrenched centralised authority. The elite, feudal landlords, military generals, and bureaucrats, reconstructed colonial hierarchies to serve their own interests, perpetuating exclusion and exploitation under the guise of national unity," it added.

Balochistan, which is the largest and most resource-rich province of Pakistan, continues to remain paralysed economically and marginalised politically. The minerals and strategic assets of Balochistan have been extracted for national gain while local residents are becoming poor. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has further increased the divide.

"In the case of the Pashtuns, decades of military operations in the tribal areas, coupled with enforced disappearances and stereotyping, have fostered a deep sense of alienation," it mentioned adding that Sindhis in Pakistan too have faced state surveillance, restrictions on nationalist movements and limited access to political power.

Legal system in Pakistan has been used to suppress dissent and silence minorities. Laws originally made by the British to control a diverse population has been repurposed in Pakistan to target religious minorities, according to the Daily Mirror report. The imposition of Urdu as the only national language in Pakistan after independence has laid the foundation for a rigid linguistic hierarchy that marginalised regional identities, particularly Bengali in East Pakistan.

Despite being spoken by most of the people, Bengali was not given equal status, causing resistance and the Language Movement of 1952. Recent protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have revealed Islamabad's treatment of peripheral areas as subjugated colonies, silencing dissent, and using force to suppress unrest.

"The behaviour of Pakistan’s military elite mirrors that of colonial masters in both style and substance. Just as colonial rulers extracted wealth, centralised power, and lived apart from the people they governed, Pakistan’s top brass have built sprawling business empires through entities like the Fauji Foundation and Army Welfare Trust, often prioritising profit and privilege over public service."

"The relocation of families abroad by Generals like Asim Munir reflects a colonial mindset of detachment, where the elite insulate themselves from the consequences of their governance, choosing comfort in foreign havens while ordinary citizens grapple with instability at home. This elite insulation, coupled with economic control and political influence, evokes the very imperial structures Pakistan once fought to escape," it added.

--IANS

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