Pakistan's Military Empire: How Army Officers Built a Parallel Economy

The 'India Narrative' report stated that when US officials voiced displeasure over what they described as the Pakistani army's "disappointing" performance, certain officers complained that insurgent groups were compensating their fighters better than the Pakistani government paid its own soldiers.

The report suggested that such grievances pointed to underlying discontent among the lower ranks of the armed forces regarding remuneration.

It noted that this was particularly significant in Pakistan, where the military traditionally commands a substantial share of the national defence budget.

The report further remarked that Pakistan is often described as "the only state in the world where the army has a state."

Tracing the evolution of the military's role in governance, the India Narrative report said that after a decade marked by political instability following independence, the army assumed control of the administration in 1958, asserting that it would steer the country through turbulent times.

Over time, however, the military entrenched itself deeply within the political structure and came to dominate key state institutions. It became both the de jure and de facto authority in the country, while also allegedly drawing heavily from state resources.

According to the report, members of the armed forces expanded into commercial and profit-oriented enterprises, which now form a substantial component of Pakistan's political economy, separate from the official military budget.

These ventures, it said, largely benefit the officer cadre rather than being distributed across the rank and file.

Pakistani political scientist Ayesha Siddiqa has described this network of military-owned business interests as "Milbus". In her book Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy, Siddiqa examines what she terms 'unaudited military capital' accumulated primarily for the personal benefit of senior officers.

The report cited her work as detailing how entrepreneurial activities by military personnel and their associates operate under explicit or implicit institutional patronage.

It further claimed that the Pakistan Army is the country's largest landholder, a major industrial player and a significant financial entity, with influence spanning multiple sectors of the economy. In this framework, control over policymaking and resource allocation becomes central, reinforcing the military's political leverage.

In Pakistan, civilian governments have been removed when they appeared to threaten this parallel economic structure, which the report claimed generates tens of billions of dollars annually for the senior military leadership. These financial networks, it said, remain largely insulated from taxation, regulation or civilian oversight.

At the same time, the report contended that sections of the civilian political leadership have accommodated this arrangement, using their tenure in office for personal enrichment rather than challenging military dominance.

It noted that Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir was seen alongside Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, participating in informal engagements, which it described as indicative of the military's continuing influence over economic and foreign policy matters.

The report further claimed that Munir accompanied the Prime Minister during a visit to the Oval Office in Washington in September 2025, where discussions with US President Donald Trump reportedly centered on trade.

- IANS