How good are Pakistan army's pension rules for martyrs

For the jingoistic Pakistani nation, the death (martyrdom) of an army person is all about watching his ceremonial funeral, a short media documentary directed or produced by army’s media wing and listening to speeches of various government and army officials on 23 March of every year.

One of my uncles died in an army operation in Balochistan. My widow aunt preferred to live with her parents instead of her inn-laws due to reasons I will discuss later.

For the family of an army’s martyr, things are not easy to manage. The stress and grief after the death is grave. The Pakistan army has a systematic approach towards dealing with the families of martyrs. The system is so convenient and smooth that the widow or her children do not have to go to any office and stand in queues to get pension and other benefits.

It has been a couple of years since my uncle died. My aunt can recollect the events after his death with a relative composed state of mind. The funeral was ceremonial and it was organized by the army in Rawalpindi’s race course graveyard, where my uncle was later buried along with other army officials who also died in the same incident.

After we returned to my uncle’s ancestral house, someone from the army called my aunt’s cell phone. Knowing that she won’t be able to understand the matter in issue, they asked her to give the telephone to a trusted relative. The person on the other side of the telephone asked for her bank account number. Soon PKR 200,000 were transferred in my aunt’s account for post funeral expenses. This amount was not deducted from pension or benevolent fund. No one from the army came to get my aunt’s signatures on any receipt nor she asked the army for that amount.

The army is equally well aware of the social turmoil the family of a martyr has to undergo. There are so many pressures on the widow such as:- she marry the brother of her deceased husband or transfer the pension amount in the accounts of parents or brothers of her deceased husband. Army’s pension rules are favoured towards the widow instead of deceased’s parents.

During the third week of my uncle’s death, there was another call from the army. At that time, my aunt was living with us as it was impossible for her to live in the house of her in-laws. This time, the gentleman on the phone line, wanted to know about her account number wherein the army can transfer benevolent fund, gratuity and monthly pension. My aunt gave her account number and the money was transferred in her account immediately. The whole process involved not a single visit to any office or meeting with any official. After a few days some papers arrived in post, which my aunt was required to read, sign and send them back, which she did accordingly.

My deceased uncle had applied for a house which he was to get after his retirement and that too after paying a huge chunk from his gratuity and benevolent fund. But in case of martyrs all remaining installments are waived off. My aunt’s in-laws wanted her to get the house in Rawalpindi where they live and they had informed officials about the choice of the city without my aunt’s consent. My aunt was composed enough to think logically. She had sensed that her in-laws may deprive her of the benefits that the house would yield in future. She telephoned the relevant department once and the city was changed. She was requested to visit an army housing society in Lahore and get the possession of her house. The first house among 2,200 under-construction houses was constructed on priority and delivered to her.

We thought that the post-martyrdom benefits have ended and thanked the army for its support. For the army, things didn’t stop there. The army invites my aunt and her son on various functions. My aunt rarely attends official functions but happily goes to meet other army wives in private functions.

My cousin passed his matriculation exam with good marks and his father’s unit gifted him an expensive gadget which a loving father would give to his son. The only thing my aunt and her son misses is my uncle’s presence to see how well they are being looked after by the institution for which he gave his life for.

After parliament, army has also started befooling people.

Here are some golden excerpts from 139th CorpsCommanders conference held in army’s general headquarters, Rawalpindi.

Some segments are tarnishing the image of army.

These segments are Taliban, Al Qaeda fighters who are creating embarrassing situations for the army. Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, the boy who was killed by Rangers in Karachi and those killed in Quetta firing.

US aid should be spent for betterment of ordinary people.

How can we spend this aid on ordinary people when we take it under defence titles. By the way, what a prompt and timely decision by our generals. Where was this thinking when the war on terror started.

Army is considering operation in North Waziristan:

What are they waiting for? American order?

Army has said no to US training and weapons.

Next time our C-130s and F16s will be repaired by Pakistani mechanics who repair CD-70s. We will not send our officers for war courses in the US. We will also burn and destroy all weapons of American origin in Pakistan’s arsenal.

There has always been a trend of befooling the people on national issues. This corps commanders conference is doing the same. Why the corps commanders conference is silent on ISI-CIA joint operations. If US aid, weapons and training is so detrimental for Pakistan’s interest, then why our general badshah meets with US delegates of ordinary nature.

Will army get public support for North Waziristan operation?

Another army operation against insurgents in North Waziristan is on the cards. Like always, except the exceptinoal Swat operation, the order has come from the US. The US had been asking Pakistan to push Taliban harder but Pakistan on one pretext or another was not complying with the US demand.
Then came the Abbotabad raid of US forces in which Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was killed along with his accomplices in a compound not far from Pakistan Military Academy. The mounting US pressure in the wake of the Abbotabad operation was unbearable for Pakistan. Pakistan was given two options either accept incompetence to track down Al Qaeda chief or confess that Pakistan was complicit with Al Qaeda.
The military establishment, which has never accepted any fault in its history, was left with nothing but to opt for incompetence. The US did not accept our incompentence plea and said on many occasions that someone in Pakistani military knew about Osama’s presence in Abbotabad. The US declared Pakistan innocent after Islamabad gave in to Washington’s pressure that Pakistan start a full fledge operation against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in North Waziristan.

People’s perspective:
Most of the people in Pakistan have never owned this war against terrorism. Only Swat operation had the necessary public support only because of a video in which Taliban were allegedly thrashing a young girl on her buttocks. All operation before Swat, were carried out half heartedly by the army and the people.
The public opinion is not likely to be in favour of the proposed operation because they have seen the army’s embarassing performance in recent incidents of terrorism. Abbotabad operation and subsequent reaction of army was an eye-opener for a nation which has always remained a fan of its armed forces.
Then came Kharotabad incident in Quetta which also forced people to think about the competence of the army which is a major budget consumer. The Taliban attack on PNS-Mehran base in Karachi was too embarassing for armed forces to digest. A handful of Taliban fighters entered the base and destroyed two survilance aircraft of Pakistan navy before escaping. The nation saw the army batteling with the handful of insurgents for the whole day and insurgents fled at the end.
The deput air chief has also told parliament that Pakistan can drop US drones flying over tribal areas but its consequences will be unbearable. Pakistan’s acceptance of US drone strikes is no more a secret. People know that Islamabad is hand in glove with Washington on drone strikes and all protests were a mere eye-wash.
With this kind of situation, army will not have any public support for an operation in North Waziristan.
The operation, likely to be started, will have grave consequences for nation. North Waziristan is the last bastion of terrorists. They will retaliate with a series of suicide attacks on targets never attacked before.

Is our army thankless

The army is so discourteous that it has never thanked civilians for bearing its expenses. We all have seen its performance recently, which was not the way we were made to expect. If it can't show us performance then at least it should thank us for feeding it at the cost of embarrassing health and education sector
Just look at this year's budget allocation for defence forces. It's astonishing Rs 491.9 billion - largest budgetary allocation for a single institution. I wrote a post last year that army should at least thank the nation for maintaining it. I received many angry emails and comments. I hope people will be less angry this time.

Security forces 'torturing' 'innocent' civilians in Swat?

A recent video has gone viral, showing uniformed soldiers torturing bearded persons in a jail. The uniformed person are shown kicking the inmates and lashing them. An other uniformed person who appeared to be the officer would ask the inmates about their connection with Taliban organisations, after they were kicked and lashed by a couple of soldiers. The video was filmed by a mobile phone camera. Some scenes of the video also showed policemen standing guard in the jail. The inmates are seen crying ‘Ya Allah’, binding their hands before their captors to spare them as they are innocent.
A debate is going to start on the clip soon. The human right activists will brand the video as inhumane and violations of human rights. They will accuse the army of brutally torturing its citizens without penalising them. The army public relation organisation, ISPR, will call the video fabricated and an attempt to malign the army.
Human right activists have never been in a war like situation and no army’s curriculum is vocal on human rights.
Who are those people which were being tortured by the army? First thought to hit any person’s mind will be innocent citizens. It can be true and it can be false.
What if those people were arrested out of a cave which contained beheaded bodies of our troops?
What if those people were horbouring Taliban terrorists who were involved in the beheading of soldiers?
What if those people were Taliban sympathiser and used to give information to Taliban organisations about the movement of the army in the area?
What if those people were involved in the abduction and beheading of army persons abducted from the same camp/unit in which the interrogators also worked?
All is fair in love and war. The party which has more deterrence wins the war. The Pakistan army got some severe blows when the war on terrorism started in our tribal areas. Abductions and beheading of army personnel were common place. At that time Taliban had more deterrence than our army. In Swat and later in the Tribal Areas, the situation changed in army’s favour. Army was using its full might and as a result it got a stronger deterrent than the Taliban.

PS: Irony is that the bearded persons were once our national defence policy’s vanguards in Afghanistan and Kashmir. We would send truck loads of our strategic assets in Afghanistan and Kashmir. By the spin of fate, our strategic strategies changed and now we regard these bearded persons, trained by us in urban and guerrilla warfare, as our biggest enemies. Hats off to our strategists in GHQ and our geo-strategic location, which has never given us any benefits except more troubles.

National Songs and Bitter Memories

Lately, my friend Naveed, who works in mobilink, brought a DVD from his office containing national songs. I put the disk in my computer but failed to enjoy the national songs. These songs used to give me goose bumps in the past but not after the death of my dear friend Major Pervaiz Siddique. He embraced martyrdom in an operation against separatist. No one in my family listens to patriotic songs, or reads such literature after his death.

He is one of the two people in my life with whom I or other members of my family have no bitter memories. The other person in my late grand father Professor M Mehfooz.

It’s very easy to read stories of soldiers sacrificing their lives for the motherland and be proud of than loosing a loved one. I used to watch a lot of documentaries on army but not after his death. My voice chocks and tears swell in my eyes. One can’t enjoy the tastes of life during gloom. Food doesn’t taste right, music does not lift mood, traffic noise becomes mute, jokes can’t be enjoyed and laughter becomes alien.

Pakistan has lost so many soldiers and officers in the recent operation in the Malakand division. My uncle left a widow and a son behind. I feel week in my knees when I try to imagine the living conditions of so many widows and orphans. I have very loving and trusting parents and their love have contributed a lot in my brought up. No one can substitute their affection.

Some times I wonder what impact the death of armymen will have on lives of their families. I learnt so many things from my dad. Who will teach these kids? How prospective flaws in their lives will be compensated with?

I can't even tolerate rangers hoisting or lowering the national flag in Wagha border. Perhaps I have seen the other side of the picture.