Under normal circumstances, the military and civil bureaucracies are two different and independent organisations. Their respective responsibilities are well defined which seldom overlap. Military’s sole task is to defend the sovereignty, integrity and independence of the state. Its bureaucracy keeps the defense system tied up to enable it to function as a compact organic whole.
The civil bureaucracy provides and co-ordinates backup support to social, economic, commercial, industrial meters in addition to the maintenance of law and order in the country and looks after its foreign affairs.
The two bureaucracies come into contact with each other only in times of emergency when law and order gets out of hand and the military is required to perform its constitutional function in aid of civil power.
Such occasions rarely arise in developed countries where democratic institutions have come of age, literacy rate is 100% and people are well aware of their rights and duties as responsible citizen.
MUHAMMAD QASIM NAZEER
Lahore
