No one can go to town on the Army like Chaudhry Nisar can. The way no one can make the occasional stopover at the GHQ like he can. Not only did the PML(N) leader, who heads the Public Accounts Committee, run to the ground the secretary for defence production, a retired general, but he also asked him to take an example of how they do things in (gasp!) India. The tension was so thick in the air, that PAC member Zafar Padhiar remarked how someone had asked him to write up a will since his committee was asking so many questions from military officers.
All is not right with the Armys finances. No, this is not saying anything about the huge budget that is allocated to our boys. This is about what it then does with the resources at its disposal. The issue at hand, for instance, that inspired the tense session, was the auditor-generals observation that the Army was illegally using Lahores Fortress Stadium for commercial purposes. The auditor-general then proceeded to demand the sum, a cool Rs. 120 billion, from the Army that he estimates has been accreted over the decades. Delightfully no-nonsense and to-the-point. Someone give this gentleman a medal.
It is not just Fortress Stadium, though. Such cases are all over the place, with the Military Lands and Cantonment Service (yes, there is such a thing) insisting that management of class A-1 land fell under the jurisdiction of the armed forces themselves. But the financial irregularities of the defenders of this hapless nation do not end there. Another parliamentary standing committee the one on SAFRON – was told the same day that the army was illegally receiving Rs. 35,000 per truck from Nato at Torkham. The passage of these trucks, and the attacks that ensue as a result, damage these roads. But the government doesnt have any money to pay for reconstruction. But the army has seen it fit to collect the fee from the estimated average of 220 trucks that ply the route daily. Go figure.
The case of the Nato containers might seem outrageous but it really is only an illustrative microcosmic example of our entire public finance paradigm.