This is with reference to your editorial published on 2 October. I totally agree with the editor that accountability should be carried out, irrespective of rank and status. Army is not a sacred cow but it has a mechanism of accountability and the present trial of three ex-generals is not a starting point. In the past, a number of soldiers have been punished for wrongdoings by its ongoing internal accountability mechanism.
The point which I would like to highlight is that the army-run institutions are the profit making bodies and contribute substantially in national exchequer every year. For example, Army Welfare Trust, Fauji Foundation and military organisations and personnel deposited more than Rs 72 billion for the year of 2009-10 in the form of taxes and duties. Moreover, it is providing jobs not only to retired military men but to thousands of civilians also.
I would request that we should continue exposing the corrupt persons and illegal activities of the individuals but must refrain blaming the institutions because individuals commit blunder and not the institutions. We have to build the institutions and make them so strong that no body, no matter how powerful he is, should be able to break the law.
I must complement the media in this regard which is showing the mirror to all. Had the system of accountability been put in place on solid footing, our major organisations like PIA, Railway, WAPDA, Steel Mills, KESC and so on should have been contributing in the national exchequer rather than becoming white elephants. The solution, as the editor recommended, is in joining hands by all the politicians and the parliament to root out the menace of corruption which is eating Pakistan inside out.
COL (retd) SHAHID ZAHUR
Rawalpindi