Ruling classes v the people of Pakistan

What got you interested in the Pakistani military?
It was partly a result of watching war films in cinemas as a child with my parents, who were too modest to watch romances with their young daughter. It was under considerable family pressure that I sat for the civil-service examination in 1987. After an MA in War Studies at the King's College in London, I did my PhD. I returned to Pakistan in 1996, and was assigned the department of Military Accounts, and later to the Pakistan Railways and Defence Audit. My academic engagement with the Naval War College, in Islamabad, as a guest lecturer, and my research on defence and strategic issues, enabled my interactions with senior officers in the armed forces

At what point did you quit the civil service?
In 2001, I decided to quit the civil service, as I felt compelled to devote more time to scholarly writings rather than sitting in the government. Based on my doctoral dissertation, my first book, Pakistan's Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-1999 was coming out. I had also been contributing to several of the leading defence journals. But my status as a government servant was proving limiting to my academic career, and I eventually resigned in 2001. Apart from working as an independent consultant and holding several overseas fellowships, I served as visiting research fellow with the Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

Tell us a little about the writing of Military Inc.
In 2004, I was selected for a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship on the strengths of a book proposal that eventually became Military Inc. One of the most intriguing questions for me at that time was the complicity of the civilian governments with the military establishment. I could understand what military interests were in the economy, but why the rest of the stakeholders cooperated escaped me. I used the opportunity to draw on my experience as a former civil servant in the accounts and audit department, and my training as an academic in defence studies to analyse the political structure of the Pakistani state in terms of the hegemonic role of military capital and class in the governance of the country. The book is not about conflict between civil or military institutions, but is essentially about the ruling classes, which includes bureaucrats and politicians versus the people of Pakistan. Unless we change the political structure, nothing is going to change.

What is your reaction to the controversy that has erupted?
The book had no intention other than academic pursuit, and I sought no other audience than academics. I have tried to distance myself from the public controversy surrounding the book, while affirming my mandate as a dispassionate academic – which includes the justification for writing the book in English. I am not a journalist, not even a politician. It's not a people-people thing, it's an academic work. The hue and cry which you see around the book is precisely what I didn't want to happen. My intent was to present a scholarly piece of work, which might be controversial academically but definitely not politically, the way it in fact turned out to be. I don't want to be remembered as an author whose launch was banned by the government, but rather for writing a thorough, credible piece. Whatever has happened to me will curb the voice of others. You know, it's just bad timing. But I have to say that I do feel very saddened by the fact that none of my academic peers stood up to defend my freedom to express myself. Academics of any worth, if there are any in Pakistan, should have said, 'Look, let her say whatever she has to; even if it is a trashy work, let the debate go on.'

Given the political-economic role of the military in Pakistan, how do you see the future?
As an analyst, my duty is to describe what is there, whether it is pessimist, bleak or bleaker. I don't believe it's my business to find solutions. I don't think there will be peace in Southasia until fundamental structures change – not only in Pakistan, mind you, but also in India, where the Indian Army has begun to take on an active role. That's actually the subject of my next book, a comparative study of the militaries in five countries of the region.
 
    
 
 
 

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