By Nadeem Abbas
India has planned to disband cantonments to end the symbol of English rule across the country while Pakistan is doing quite contrary further strengthening its powers after May 9, 2023 events when PTI charged supporters set on fire Corp Commander house in Lahore, hit GHQ and targeted a number of military installations after the arrest of PTI chief Imran Khan.
According to reports, 62 cantonments around India will be converted to military stations. Moreover, the civilian areas will be merged with local municipalities, which will be responsible for their maintenance among other things. Under the plan, the first cantonment to be renamed a military station was Yol in Himachal Pradesh, with Skinderabad and Nasirabad among the cantonments set to be shrunk.
Moreover, the overall strength of the Indian army has decreased by 180,000 soldiers. From 2019 to June 2022, there was no recruitment of soldiers in the army for a period of three years.
India’s former Major General Ashok Mehta has said that in addition to the reduction of 180,000 soldiers, the overall strength of the army will be reduced by another 100,000 soldiers. From June 2022, 40,000 soldiers have been recruited into the army for a specified period under the new law of recruitment called ‘Agni Veer’. According to him, the headquarters of the Integrated Defence Staff issued an order last month to further reduce the number of existing personnel in all branches of the armed forces by ten percent. The main reason for reducing the size of the army is the pension and other expenses incurred by the retired soldiers.
Meanwhile amid political uncertainty and large scale arrest of leaders and supporters of PTI, Pakistan is facing default threats as IMF is not completing it review programme with the authorities on several grounds mainly for not fulfilling their commitments. During such state of economic affairs, Pakistan must act to announce major cut in its defence budget as Pakistan is facing huge gaps in payments.
Army is taking various steps to silence the opposition and the cases of the accused of the riots are being tried in military courts. At this critical moment, Pakistan must create unity in its political ranks and other state institutions to get the country out of the economic mess.
Jahangir Khan Tareen, who once used to be a close aide of the PTI chief, has launched a new party, the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP). Political analyst says the creation of king party by the establishment won’t solve the core issues of the state and clouds of uncertainty and legitimacy of the new govt after the general elections will remain contentious.
