PAKISTAN: Pakistan's parliament yesterday approved a law prolonging President Pervez Musharraf's dual role as President and army chief. It was a stormy session dominated by noisy opposition protests.
The new law allows Mr Musharraf to remain army chief despite his pledge 10 months ago to shed his uniform by December 31st.
Military juntas have ruled Pakistan directly for more than for half its life after independence 57 years ago and indirectly during its embryonic experiments with democracy.
Besides controlling the country's nuclear, defence and foreign policies the Pakistani army has also emerged as the nation's largest and most profitable business conglomerate.
Nearly 1,200 serving and retired military officers - mostly from the army - run a web of banks, transport, road-building, communication and construction businesses worth billions of dollars.
The Fauji, or soldier foundations, operate a private airline, hundreds of educational institutions, power plants, steel and cement factories and even produce consumer goods such as sugar, electronic items and breakfast cereals.
"It is not just a defence force, but a ruling class oligarchy with substantial economic interests to safeguard," according to defence analyst Mr Satish Kumar who edits India's National Security Annual Review. It is unlikely that the military will relinquish this role in the foreseeable future, he added.
Over the years, the military has also appropriated large tracts of hugely expensive urban land at throwaway prices to establish grandiose housing colonies across Pakistan.
The army's business interests fall broadly into three categories - those controlled directly by the chief of army staff, and others in the formalised military sector that include ordnance and state-owned armament factories that are managed by the Ministry of Defence.
The third and highly profitable segment are the four charitable trusts that operate autonomously like private corporations in which serving and former servicemen manage factories and manufacturing units producing varied goods and services.
The first group includes the National Highway Authority and Frontier Works Organisation, each headed by a two-star officer, the Special Communications Organisation, amply supported by the Signal Corps, and the National Logistics Cell that operates a significant, if seldom discussed, country-wide trucking operation.
But the Fauji, or Soldier Foundation, the largest industrial conglomerate, with an annual turnover of $500 million and profits of over $41 million, is the "jewel" in the military's crown.
Headed by a three-star officer, it provides " womb to tomb" facilities for nearly nine million retired servicemen that include resettlement and re-employment schemes in military-run cement, power and sugar factories.
It also grants retired soldiers land in villages along the line of control across Pakistan's eastern frontier with India.
The Army Welfare Trust employs around 6000 former soldiers and runs the Askari Commercial Bank, one of Pakistan's most profitable.
Like his predecessors, Gen Musharraf heads the bank's governing board that comprises senior officers. The trust is also involved in around 25 other projects worth around $354 million.