Individual Counts

What a circus! This morning when Dr. Ayesha’s book Military Inc was to be launched at the Islamabad Club, we were told that the reservation has been cancelled. All the hotels of Islamabad were ordered not to give space. After running around the city trying to find a place, Lead Pakistan’s office was chosen as the venue. Hats off to LEAD Pakistan for coming through.

Inspite of all the efforts to disrupt the launch, the book launching was a hit. The mike didn’t work, most of the people were standing, there was no proper stage for the speakers, the ACs also ceased to work when more than two hundred people were cramped inside a small hall , but still the launch was successful. As Dr. Ayesha said , “ I am extremely well connected. I asked the khakis to impose a ban on the book launching so that I can get all of you people interested in buying the book!”
As we ran from pillar to post in the morning trying to find a venue… when we kept the new venue a secret right upto an hour before the launch, we kept reminding ourselves that this is not Zia’s Pakistan. But perhaps it is .

Dr. Ayesha said it all when she said ,“ This book is not against the Army. It is about the Army written for the wretched of my land. It is written by me for me and you so that we can ponder over where we are going. “

Dr. Ayesha’s book the Military Inc is going to be launched at Islamabad on May 31st. However, we got our hands on a copy and thought would share some excerpts from it .While some reviewers have focused on the central argument of MILBUS ( Military business ) , the following is interesting reading also :

“It is popularly believed that the Army run corporation is efficient and profitable. However, one might like to reconsider this claim and belief in the efficiency of the army run corporations. The Army Welfare Trust (AWT) asked for a financial bail out worth five billion rupees in 1997 and was given relief worth two billion from the national exchequer by the Sharif government .A bail out was again requested from the Sharif regime in February 1999 .The Finance Ministry referred the matter to the Parliament ‘s Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs with the request that it approve a guarantee of Rs 2.5 billion which would be used to redeem the earlier guarantee of Rs 4 billion. The AWT had sought a fresh loan to pay off part of the earlier financial liability fresh financial guarantee was sought from the government despite the fact that the Army Welfare Trust was declared to be a private sector entity which could not get financial aid from the government which was not responsible for its debt repayment .The AWT also borrowed from local national and private banks and international financial market. Approximately six and a half billion rupees out of a total of fifteen billion rupees deficit was borrowed from the National Bank of Pakistan, Allied Bank Limited and ABN-Amro against official guarantees. In addition, AWT owed on and a half billion rupees to a foreign financial company Laith Ltd which had filed a recovery suit against it in the United Kingdom.’

The Fauji Foundation does not fare dramatically different. The Fauji-Jordan Fertilizer Company [FJFC] is a joint venture of Fauji Foundation Cement [30 percent], the Fauji Foundation [10 percent], Jordan Phosphate Mines Co [10 percent], local private placement [4 percent], General Public and National Investment Trust [8 percent] and Commonwealth Development Corp [5 percent] secured four foreign currency loans. This comprised US $30 million from the Canadian Export Development Corp, US $ 53 million from Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufabau of Germany, US $ 57 million from a consortium of French banks and a US $ 40 million facility from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The money was used to purchase a second hand ammonia plant from the United States worth US $ 370 million. This did not turn out to be a wise investment as in 2001 FJFC’s stock fell by 21.1 percent within thirteen weeks. This compelled President Mushraff to ask Fauji Foundation to improve the profitability of certain projects .This advice was given along with financial help from the government .The government’s economic survey shows that FF was consistently subsidized to the tune of over one billion rupees annually. No such help has been extended to other private sector organizations.”