Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa Agha on Pakistan Military

It is now recognized that without Chinese military's crucial role, it would have been very difficult for the Chinese to build the modern industrial base and attract massive foreign direct investments to become the factory of the world. It is also clear that, as a powerful and stable institution, Pakistani military can and should take inspiration from the PLA to play a much bigger role in Pakistan's economic development and rapid industrialization to help increase the nation's prosperity and lift millions out of poverty, as China's PLA has done.

Pakistan's military should take a leaf from the Chinese PLA playbook. It should do what is necessary to strengthen the nation's industry, economy and national security, regardless of any critics, including Ayesha Siddiqa Agha and her myriad fans. This is the best way forward to a well-educated, industrialized, prosperous and democratic Pakistan in the future.

Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

"Ayesha Siddiqa’s MILITARY INC: A Deflective and Derogatory Book"

Dr Ayesha Siddiqa’s ‘The Military Inc.’ is a book deflective of reality, highly derogatory and against the very notion of sovereignty. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa launches the book by giving the impression that her intention is to cover the entrepreneurial activities of military worldwide. However, in depth reading reaffirms suspicions that her book massively targets the Pakistan Military and the top echelons of the Armed Forces, most of which are based upon self serving assumptions and intentional hoodwinking. The publication of Dr Ayesha Siddiqa’s own book ‘Military Inc’ in 2007, in President Musharraf’s era, repudiates her claims to term the military rule as manipulative and suppressive. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa wrote a whole book, to malign a system (MILBUS) whose worth does not exceed 0.8% of Pakistan’s free market economy.

READ THE ARTICLE - REFUTTAL:

http://presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/ or

http://presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/ayesha-siddiqas-military- inc-a-deflective-and-derogatory-book/

Re: # 14
Well summed up in a nut shell, saves me from the trouble of rewriting my thoughts on this character Agha.
An accountant at the Defense dept. financed by the US and aided by the not so neighborly India comes to pick on the Army of Pakistan & it's role on stepping in to save Pakistan from the enemies within.
Most of those who are emerging on the screen of Pak politics find it so easy to step in as a prospective leader by sowing the seeds of a theory that they deem suitable for the minds of Pakistani people to accept.
Haven't these pseudo politicians already hurt the nation enough, do we need more of these?
It would be nice if the Pak legislative of future introduces a bill to become law, under the provisions of which, the right to free speech & expression is fully protected but the proceeds from any such publication in future should be entirely secured in favor of reform work to establish appropriate standards of free speech & expression and for holding adult classes on lessons of civics (not to be taught by authors like Agha).

#6 This punjabi muslims deafeated "sikander Badshah" and he got so much trouble in punjab
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subhaan allah. what a sense of history ahmedmadani saab has.

Re: # 7

Good and quite appropriate acronyms.

I had a class fellow in university whose father used to work as a civilian head clerk in the GHQ. When asked what his father's profession was, he would say, "hamary abba fouj ki baRi dhooi main kaam karte hain"

Thank you for this report out. It was done quite professionally.

What the **** Ayesha Siddiqa Agha? What Kinda name is it? A paradox? It is like having a name Haideri Abubakar :)

haideri

BTW, Riaz, I agree with your pessimism. Fool me once (and I did support BB in 1988) shame on you, fool me twice and then a third time? What does that say about the Awaam?

I agree that Musharraf has to go, but does BB-AZ/NS have to come back?

#14 Leadenwinter

Yaar, you are a character!

Thanks for the laughs!

Major Sahib,

Just curious, when did the PM troops fire on the Kaaba? Presumably during WWI but when exactly? Which battalioln? And under what circumstances?

Ayesha Siddiqa Agha is a creature of the US agitprop apparatus and absolutely every opinion of hers must be taken with a huge pinch of salt. This asiatic Aunt Jemima is one of the more ardent members of a cadre of Westernised Oriental gentlemen (and ladies in this case) who have made their careers out of standing on their hind legs and barking in tune to whatever rhetoric Zionists and Capitalists are spewing to instigate their hegemony. Pro-democracy propaganda has the aim of allowing Western multinationals greater purchase in the Pakistani economy in the short run and destabilising Pakistan in the long run towards semi-autonomous or autonomous fiefdoms subservient to the US. The reality of the situation is that the Military is all Pakistan actually has to show for itself and even this degree of domestic infrastructure is repugnant to the US who want essentially a cart-blanche for their economic, cultural and political imperialism. Ms. Agha is in essence making all the right noises at the moment hoping to forward her career at the expense of the nation she purports to represent.

I think Ms Agha is being too generous in her praise of the voters in Pakistan. By recycling the old, failed leadership of the PPP and PML(N), the voters have essentially punished Musharraf and his allies for the atta, security and electricity crises but also signaled a clear lack of better options to replace the current rulers. In a way, the US still comes out ahead because it was the US that sponsored the amnesty paving the way for the return of PPP's exiled leadership. Zardari owes it to the US to toe the US line, as was agreed by BB and articulated in her speeches prior to her unfortunate assassination. So, don't expect a fundamental change in Pakistan's posture toward the US. Nor would I expect any big changes in terms of better governance in Pakistan on the domestic front. I hope I am wrong but I am going by the known history of the expected new government....a third chance for both the PPP and the PML(N).
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Some one possibly a pakistani has red flagged my post, implying that my post contains incorrect info.

From dawn of today is the below post, I have inculded only two of more than 16 honour killings in a single village in pakistan last year.

Today, on the womens day, it would be more appropriate for Ayesha to focus on womens issues rather than advicing the paki army.

In June, a couple was killed in Gujranwala, Punjab. Sources said that Uzma 18 had married a boy Shabir in her neighbourhood on her own free will against the permission of her parents. The couple had fled to Karachi and then shifted to Gujranwala where they were traced and killed.

Similarly, another couple was killed in Ouch, Lower Dir on November 11, sources said, adding that the girl Khaista Begum and the boy Islam Zeb had married on their own violating the family’s decision. People said that the elders of the girl’s family ‘deceived’ the couple and invited them to their home but when they reached they were allegedly killed by the girl’s relatives.

Thanks, Ras Siddiqui.
Yes, Wajahat is doing an excellent job. Am glad he is able to give time to journalism.
C.

Nice read Mr. C

Saw it in the Link too. Please write more often.

Also read her interview by Wajahat Ali in Couterpunch.

Pretty powerful stuff.

#8 Kamath

[What about making LOVE and not WAR]

Sir, I remember hearing this one somewhere. The suggestion is quite impractical and counterproductive in view of the high population growth rate.