Colonel
(Retd) Riaz Jafri
The
'South Asia Tribune' dated Aug 19, 2002 has published in
bold a headline “A First Hand List of Army Land Lords”
(see story),
and goes on to give the names of 62 Generals, Admirals, Air Marshal,
Brigadiers, Colonels and Lt Cols (including General Musharraf) in
addition to the mention of 50 JCOs, NCOs and other ranks who have
grabbed 400 acres of the land in Bahawalpur area.
I am
not very certain about the veracity of the news but the credentials
of Mr. Shaheen Sehbai, Editor South Asia Tribune are known to be
"not above the board."
This
piece of information assumes further significance when one sees
Benazir Bhutto capitalising on it while berating General Musharraf
on ARY TV a few days back. 400 acres when distributed over at least
112 persons comes to less than 4 acres each, which hardly justifies
the title of “Land Lords” for them which Mr. Sehbai
has bestowed upon them.
His animosity
towards the army and particularly the present military regime is
an open secret for all to see. The report on "Army Land Lords"
is mischievous, slanderous and a part of dis-information against
the army. It is an effort to present an honest, legitimate and a
useful practice as corrupt and disgraceful act on the part of the
military and make the innocent (allow me to say, ignorant of the
facts) readers believe it too. Facts are that such distribution
of the waste crown lands at/near the borders to the defence personnel
is an age old practice.
In
addition to the lands on the borders some other waste lands in the
interior and hinterland are also allotted/leased out to defence
personnel willing to develop them. In the British days
goneby and even today waste crown lands were and are given on lease
in the form of ‘Ghori Paal Murrabas, Bhed Paal Murrabas and
Stud Farms for the breeding of the horses, mules sheep and milk
cattle etc. to meet the defence in particular and domestic needs
in general. Most of Maghiana-Jhang, Faisal Abad, Shorekot etc.-
then inhabited by the 'Janglis' as they were called in those days,
was allotted to many including Colonel Abid Hussain (father of Abida
Hussain) of famous Shah Jeuna Farms in district Sargodha.
Such
waste land is controlled by the Pak Government, Ministry of Defence,
and allotted to the three services – army, airforce and navy
– proportionately according to their manpower strength. Then,
the respective services’ Directorates of Welfare allot/distribute
these lands to their respective officers, JCOs/Warrant Officers/Petty
Officers, NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) and other ranks strictly
on the basis of merit. Merit is determined by a 'Point System' and
Points are allotted for the Number of Years of Service, Military
or Civil Decorations/Awards, Shaheeds, Disabled/Invalid, Domicile
(a soldier from Sialkot area gets preference over a soldier from,
say, Sukkur area for the land on Sialkot borders) etc. Again the
available land is distributed proportionately among various ranks,
for example; say, 5 percent for the officers, 20 percent for the
JCOs, and 75 percent for the NCOs and other ranks (exact ratios
can be obtained from the GHQ).
Lands are also
allotted to the Regimental Centres for collective farming under
the Regimental Centres. Such as; Punjab Regimental Centre, presently
located at Mardan NWFP, Frontier Force Regimental Centre at Abbottabad
and Baluch Regimental Centre also at Abbottabad were allotted lands
in Sindh where they are being run as Collective Farms by the retired
personnel of these Regiments very successfully.
Allotment
of such waste lands to the defence personnel serves two essential
purposes. One, the waste land is brought under cultivation and made
productive by the defence personnel where no civilians like to reside,
and add to the national economy and agricultural produce. One has
to see to believe the amount of hard labour, effort and money put
in by these hardy defence personnel and their families, toiling
for years on end in a mercilessly hostile and deserted surrounding
with no infra structure or amenities of any type available to them
and yet make the barren land cultivable. Many an allottee’s
patience gives up midway and he abandons the land after years of
sustained effort and sinking in of his life’s long earnings
into it which refuses to become productive (It is quite common in
the desert areas such as that of Bahawalpur – where the investigator
Sehbai has unearthed 400 acres of very fertile land grabbed by the
Army Generals).
The
second purpose that such allotment serves is to station the ‘trained
man power’ at the borders who do not vacate the area at the
start of the border hostilities but stay there to defend it. They
form a very useful part of the Second Line force.
Again, to safe
guard such close-to-the-borders lands against falling into the hands
of undesirable elements like – smugglers, terrorists, enemy
agents or unpatriotic persons - these can not be sold or transferred
to others without the specific scrutiny and permission of the General,
Air or Naval Head Quarters.
Now,
my dear Sehbai, how many acres of such fertile land under such beautiful
conditions would you like to be allotted with ? Do you have the
guts to spend even a night out there in that wilderness ? I will
try to get you some, though in helping you get it, I shall be running
the dire risk of ‘stationing’ a person of your dubious
patriotism at Pakistan’s borders !
The
writer has given his address as: 30, Westridge-1, Rawalpindi 46000
Tel : (051) 546-3344EMail: jafri@rifiela.com
Editor's
Note: Colonel Jafri has proved by his spirited defence of the army
landlords what our story wanted to convey: Something is basically
crooked in this whole affair. Firstly, not being well versed with
reading and writing, Colonel Jafri has misread the whole point.
Our Front Page clearly stated: "The List has almost all the
big names, including that of President Pervez Musharraf, who bought
state land in Bahawalpur at the laughable price of Rs 380 (Six Dollars
and 50 cents) per acre. And no one bought less than 400
acres, or almost 250 football grounds each." Col Jafri
read this as if the entire lot of Generals and Colonels had collectively
purchased 400 acres, or less than 4 acres each. Then he goes on
to attack my credentials without giving any example. But informative,
and amusing, is his attempt to explain and justify how and in what
colonial tradition all this had been done. We thank him for providing
the background and details that were missing in our story. He offers
me similar land to grab. I am not interested but many others would
be. Probably the Army would not like friends like him!
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