Author flees to London after receiving threats

LAHORE: Renowned Pakistani scholar and the writer of Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, has left Pakistan and reached London fearing for her life. She received a message that a charge sheet was being prepared against her to put her on trial for defaming the Pakistan Army in her controversial book.

Ayesha’s book, which was launched last week, has created a stir in Pakistan. Her family circles say she is constantly receiving threatening phone calls of dire consequences for bringing disrepute to the Pakistan Army. Before leaving Pakistan, she received a legal notice from a retired general, demanding Rs one billion as damages for exposing his alleged acts of omission and commission in her book.

While the political and administrative influence of the Pakistan Army is well known, public knowledge of its vast business interests is limited. Ayesha made an attempt to enlighten people on this issue. Her first book titled Pakistan’s Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99 In Search of a Policy was the first detailed analysis of defence decision-making in Pakistan. Her second publication is a blisteringly pragmatic indictment of the enormous social and political costs of the Pakistani military’s extra curricular business activities.

Ayesha writes in her controversial book, “The military business has altered the character of the Pakistan Army as an institution. Years of involvement of senior generals in profit-making activities has led to the formation of a group of capitalists with the power to exploit the financial resources of the state. The senior generals have used the Pakistan Army’s influence to further their financial and political power. The military enjoys complete autonomy from all civilian stockholders when it comes to its numerous commercial ventures, with the result that the more the military’s economic power increases, the weaker the Pakistani civil society becomes.”