A cantonment mentality, and fear of India keep the Pakistan military´s coffers full
Two years ago, when India´s former Chief of Army Staff General K. Sunderji met with Pakistan´s former Vice Chief of Army Staff General K.M. Arif for non-official talks in Islamabad, both generals agreed that defence spending should be reduced in their respective countries.
What is interesting about that exchange was, firstly, that it took place at all, and, secondly, that no one picked up on it. The episode says something about the arena of public debate in Pakistan, where some of the most important issues of rule and misrule are conveniently never discussed. "Defence spending is one of those things that they don´t want the people to talk about," says I.A. Rehman, a senior journalist now heading the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Indeed, the Pakistani rulers´ reluctance to let the ghareeb awam (the poor masses) in on the decision-making processes is particularly visible when it concerns the armed forces. This is the most sacred of cows, and the secrecy extends from defence expenditures to scientific experiments and troop movements. The military is treated as an entity apart from the people, an attitude that is often reflected in the behaviour of serving or ex-army officers.