Launch of book on Pakistan military blocked

Islamabad, May 31: The Pakistani government has told a top club and hotels in the capital not to host the launch of a book on the Pakistani military's penetration of the economy, the book's author said Today.

But author Ayesha Siddiqa, a political analyst and former director of research at the Pakistan navy, said the launch of her book ''Military Inc. Inside Pakistan's Military Economy'', scheduled for Thursday, would go ahead.

''It has been cancelled and all hotels were issued instructions not to give us room,'' Siddiqa said, referring to the planned book launch at the capital's top private club, the Islamabad Club.

''It's because it's something against the military,'' she said.

Siddiqa's book tackles the virtually taboo subject of the military's huge business empire, which she estimates is worth 10 billion dollars.

She said the instructions to venues not to host the launch had been issued by the Ministry of Interior. But Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said they were not aware of any ban.

''We're looking for an alternative. The book launch will happen today,'' she said.

The Pakistani military has ruled the country for more than half its history since it was carved out of British-ruled India as a home for Muslims in 1947.

The book's publication comes at a sensitive time with a campaign for the restoration of full democracy gathering pace since President Pervez Musharraf, who is also army chief, tried to dismiss the country's top judge in March.

Supporters of the suspended chief justice bitterly criticised the military at a televised lawyers' seminar on the weekend and the government has filed a legal complaint in response.

The Islamabad Club denied cancelling the launch. It said the organiser, the Oxford University Press, had cancelled it.

The publisher's managing director in Pakistan, Ameena Saiyid, said the club cancelled the launch.

POLITICAL POWER

Siddiqa said the military owns hundreds of businesses across the country, many run by five conglomerates, and it also controls large tracts of land.

The business empire, run virtually without any transparency or accountability, underpins the military's political power, she said.

''Basically, it's about penetrating society and its economy.

The financial economy is essentially a part of political power,'' she said.

The state-run APP news agency put out a report yesterday citing unidentified analysts as saying the book was ''a plethora of misleading and concocted stories'' aimed at giving the military a bad name and creating a rift with the civil sector.

The newspaper said Siddiqa had quoted wrong figures at least 250 times in the book.

Asked about her reaction to the article, Siddiqa said: ''I think they haven't even read the book.''

REUTERS

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