Military business


EVERY once in a while, some facet of the vast business empire of the military comes under fleeting scrutiny — and then, just as quickly, disappears from the public radar. But what transpired at Monday’s meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence is worth reflecting on. Why, a committee member asked, are the Defence Housing Authority administrators appointed by the army chief and not by the defence ministry? The question is an especially loaded one because DHAs have come to represent all that is wrong with the army’s system of perks and privileges. From legislative cover not extended to other housing authorities — something the PML-N recently made a show of resisting in the National Assembly over DHA Islamabad — to converting land into staggeringly expensive parcels and farming them out to army officers, the DHA model is a system that allows vastly preferential treatment to an already coddled class of society.

Start with the theory behind DHAs: giving military officers an investment opportunity in that most prized of possessions — land. Already objectionable enough in theory, the reality is profoundly more disturbing. Take a random sample of any DHA society today and the ratio of civilians to ex-army officers living there is vastly skewed in the favour of civilians — meaning that DHAs are being administered by the army while largely catering to rich civilians. The reason is straightforward: the cost of living in DHAs is so high that many officers prefer to sell the plots or rent out/sell the houses they build on the plots granted to them by the state. The real trick behind DHAs is to acquire land at knockdown prices (which land authority can resist the army when it comes calling?). It is then developed through public money — by definition, whether generated from private business or received through the exchequer, all money controlled by the military is held in a public trust — and the plot assignees are then allowed to dispose of their gift as they see fit.

There are many ways to describe the design of DHAs and “institutionalised corruption” would not be too off the mark. Someone equivalent to a brigadier or major general in the private sector, say a mid- to senior-level banker, cannot afford after a lifetime of working in the private sector what the military routinely grants to its own in vast numbers. While it is the responsibility of the state to look after those who have spent their lives defending it, surely minting millionaires was not meant to be part of the equation. More scrutiny of DHAs will help expose the inherent unjustness.


A common enemy


THE changing pattern of violence seems to have forced two of Karachi’s old political rivals to do some fresh thinking and realise there is a common enemy. On Sunday, Altaf Hussain made a highly conciliatory statement and not only apologised to the Pakhtun community for any wrong committed by him, he also asked Mohajirs to forgive the Pakhtuns if they had reason to feel aggrieved by the latter. Addressing party workers based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the telephone, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief said there was no conflict of interest between the two communities and claimed that the change in the province’s nomenclature would not have been possible without his party’s support. The MQM chief’s sentiments acquire significance when we note that Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali has been expressing similar views, pointing out that not all Pakhtuns belonged to the ANP, nor was every Urdu-speaking person an MQM supporter, and that it was the two parties’ activists who were being murdered. Another significant statement was made by Bashir Jan, Sindh secretary of the ANP, in the wake of MQM legislator Manzar Imam’s assassination in January. He said the two parties had a common enemy and it was their duty to come together.

The ANP and MQM have a relationship mired in three decades of violence in which politics, crime, turf wars and ethnicity have combined to result in several bouts of bloodshed in Karachi. But now, the changing nature of killings appears to have forced the old antagonists to realise that religious militancy has come to pose a common threat to them and to Karachi’s peace. It goes without saying that the vast majority of the people, irrespective of their ethnicity and sect, wish to go about their business in an atmosphere free from strife. And if the leaders of the ANP and MQM — political parties with significant stakes in Karachi — so decide, they can reach some kind of a peace deal with each other. This would not only bring relief to the residents, it would also strengthen the two parties’ hands against religious militancy in the city.


Cruelty to animals


THE season of dogfights is upon us. Literally so, with canines being unleashed on each other to provide entertainment to crowds. As we reported the other day, the practice is actively under way in Punjab’s Chakwal district these days. Perhaps it is only in keeping with our martial spirit that other animals too are made to indulge in such blood sports — cockfights are even more common in the country and very little is being done to discourage this cruel practice. Where preventing such barbarism is concerned, the country’s laws are antiquated and the only act that takes cognisance of such cruelty is the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890 which specifies a penalty for “baiting or inciting animals to fight”. However, even this colonial-era law has hardly been implemented, judging by the callous attitude that we,
as a society, continue to harbour towards birds and beasts.

In fact, blood sports are only a more extreme manifestation of cruelty towards animals: we tend to take for granted the sight of overloaded beasts of burden on the roads, children pelting cats and dogs with stones, and birds packed like sardines in cages being sold at street corners. It is unfortunate that this mentality has also seeped into zoos in this country, which are theoretically supposed to cater to animal welfare and showcase various species in a way that they do not feel removed from their natural habitat.
There is an urgent need for animal laws to be revised and updated, for penalties to be enhanced, and for local administrations to crack down heavily on all manner of blood sports. However, a comprehensive law will only solve part of the problem. The bigger challenge is to change attitudes and sensitise society to the needs of those who cannot communicate their misery.

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