Part 10
By Iqbal Hamza
The tenth, and perhaps most consequential, reason Pakistan is sliding toward collapse lies in the entrenched financial and administrative corruption of its military regime.
A national survey on corruption in Pakistan indicates that nearly 46 percent of citizens have been forced to pay bribes to government officials even for matters that are entirely legal. For many, corruption is no longer an exception but a routine requirement for accessing basic services. This reality is reflected in Pakistan’s consistently low ranking, 135th on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Taken together, these indicators leave little doubt that the military regime is deeply entangled in systemic, large-scale corruption.
This reality became particularly evident with the conviction and imprisonment of Faiz Hameed, a prominent and influential figure within the military regime, on charges of corruption and abuse of authority. He previously served as the Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). His case sent a powerful signal that corruption is not confined to lower or mid-level officials but extends to the highest ranks of power.
In recent years, especially over the past three to four years, an unusually large number of Pakistani generals and senior officers have been forced into retirement or dismissed on corruption charges.
The scale of the problem is staggering. According to the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), financial irregularities within the military sector amounting to approximately 25 billion Pakistani rupees were recorded over a short period. This is not mere inefficiency; it represents the wholesale plunder of public funds.
International financial institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have repeatedly raised concerns about the regime’s extensive financial corruption.
While graft has long plagued Pakistan’s civilian governments, especially within the police sector, and while some mid-ranking military officers were previously implicated, the case of Faiz Hameed marked a turning point. It demonstrated that senior military leadership itself is now deeply enmeshed in corrupt practices.
The corruption of Pakistan’s military regime has reached such a level that even political parties have grown frustrated and constrained by its widespread corruption. Administrative corruption within the military regime has escalated to the point that it imprisoned Imran Khan without any justification and appointed Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister.
It is also widely understood among the Pakistani public that Asim Munir has abused his authority by unlawfully extending his tenure and curtailing the powers of the Supreme Court.
Pakistan’s corruption crisis has now reached a stage where the military and the civilian government operate in coordination, shielding and supporting one another in financial and administrative wrongdoing.
History offers a clear and consistent lesson: no government sustained by injustice and corruption can survive indefinitely. Collapse becomes a matter of time. The fallen Afghan republic stands as a recent and sobering example. Despite the combined financial and military backing of forty-two global powers, that system ultimately failed. A regime in which corruption has hardened into habit and culture cannot escape a similar fate.
Pakistan’s military regime, burdened by its own excesses, is moving toward an inevitable collapse. The only remaining question is not if, but when and at what cost to the nation.