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ISLAMABAD, July 13: The latest craze of Pakistan’s
military Generals is to play Golf and convert State
lands into Golf Courses all over the country. Data
released in the Parliament proves this shocking
reality.
Army authorities have converted hundreds of acres
of military farm lands into golf courses for pleasure
and leisure activities of senior uniformed officials
since 1999. These golf courses are in addition to
those made on Railway lands, especially in Lahore
where the cost was an unbelievable Rs 25 billion.
The information about turning military farm lands
into golf courses, housing schemes and commercial
projects since 1999 was brought on public record
in the Senate when Senator Rukhsana Zuberi asked
pointed questions.
Information provided by the Defence Minister, Rao
Sikander Iqbal, confirmed that 307 acres of military
farms lands were so converted.
The minister embarrassingly did not reveal the maintenance
cost of each golf course and thousands of gallons
of water used daily to maintain the lush green grass
for the Generals to tee off, while people die of
water shortages or drinking contaminated water in
various parts of the country.
Similarly Auditor General's reports have also identified
similar undertakings of the army for pleasure of
senior officers. Information provided by the Defence
Ministry to the Senate showed that since 1999, 24.5
acres of military land was converted into golf course
in Attock. In Sargodha 60 acres of military land
was converted into a golf course.
The Defence Minister also informed the House that
army housing schemes were launched on military farm
lands on an area measuring 222 acres.
The Senate was told that 36.96 acres of military
dairy farm Chaklala in Rawalpindi was converted
into a housing scheme. In Lahore, 133.96 acres of
land belonging to military dairy farms were converted
into housing schemes since 1999. In Sialkot, the
authorities converted 51.2 acres of military dairy
farm land into a housing society.
Shockingly enough the shameful plunder of Pakistan's
resources by the generals does not stop here. The
Defence Minister in response to a question by senator
Dr Nighat Agha said that the record pertaining to
the terms and conditions on which the Varan Bus
Service was given a terminal in the Cantonment Area
of Rawalpindi on a land measuring 2.42 acres "was
not available in the Military Estate Office Rawalpindi."
The Defence Minister also told the Senate that Varan
Bus Service, owned by the daughter of Lt Gen (Retd)
Hamid Gul, a self-proclaimed ideologue of the Right,
was causing environmental pollution in the area
for which no effective measures have been adopted
by the owners of the terminals.
Perhaps to avoid accountability of such nature where
the facts are revealed before the public, the defence
forces do not allow the democratic system to flourish
in Pakistan.
If democracy flourishes, how would the generals
justify the expenditure of millions of rupees on
golf courses to the public representatives when
millions are burdened by abject poverty and hundreds
committing suicides due to hopelessness.
While the government run by Gen Musharraf has spent
millions on leisure and pleasure activities of the
senior uniformed officials since 1999, their own
Finance Minister admitted in the latest Economic
Survey that 50 million people, some 32 per cent
of the population, were living on just Rs848 per
month or almost $14 per month.
Ironically when the poor babies in millions of households
of Pakistan cry for a piece of bread or a glass
of milk, the Generals play golf on the lush green
lawns. The disparity is glaring and provocative. |
