According to estimates, Army controls 12 per cent of state land, out of which 62 per cent falls in Punjab, the agriculturally richest of Pakistan’s four provinces, Newsline magazine reported.
President, General Pervez Musharraf, himself had six properties which include 2,000 sq yards of land in Defence Society, Karachi, a 1,200 sq yards plot in Morgah, Rawalpindi, a 900 sq yards plot in Peshwar, two sq yards in Bahawlpur, 600 sq yards in Eastridge and 1,200 sq-yards in Gwadar, it said.
The country continues with the British tradition of rewarding military personnel with the land allotments. An army General retires with hundreds of prime agricultural land besides urban plots in different cities, the report said.
“According to an assessment based on the value of rural and urban plots the worth of a general in the army in real estate terms is anything from a hefty Rs 150 to 400 million and that is a conservative estimate,” it said.
However, defence spokesman, Major General, Mr Shaukat Sultan denied that army has emerged as a major real estate player.
“Military personnel who have become members of the army run housing societies and acquire them through payment made through instalments collected from the salaries,” he said.
Posted by proutist-universal on July 18, 2006 5:34 AM
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |