GHQ to Islamabad

By today's standards, the conditions in which our military and civilian officer functioned for the first few years of Pakistan would be called primitive and even until the 70's offices had only the essentials in furniture and facilities. Essential requirements were provided but luxuries and unnecessary frills were not to be seen. In the thirty years since, the style of living of some of our civil and military officers of senior ranks resembles that of business tycoons. The offices of some general officers and senior bureaucrats which should have a Spartan look, often resemble the drawing rooms of successful businessmen. This is also true of most of our civilian rulers who seem to have forgotten that they are the representatives of a poor country, the majority of whose people are living a life of poverty and squalor.
It would, I think, be too much to expect the military and our civilian rulers to give up the style of living they have become accustomed to. Is it however too much to ask that the Army should give up the move of GHQ to Islamabad which is a burden on the poor taxpayer of Pakistan and will add to his misery and problems. It is unlikely that this will be properly discussed in the budget session of the National Assembly or that the planned expenditure on this project will be disclosed even to the elected representatives of the people. The budget session of the National Assembly without a full discussion of the Defence Budget will therefore remain the farce that it has always been.
The writer is ex-air marshal