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In Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, and some intelligence agencies are considered as part of Pakistani military. Over the years, the military has been criticized for its past and present actions. Most of the criticism is levelled against Pakistan Army who is the most dominant branch of Pakistan's military. It has been criticized for eroding democratic processes in Pakistan, for being the largest business conglomeration in the country, for excessive control over the domestic and foreign policies of Pakistan, for war crimes, role in Bengali genocide, and corruption within the institution.[1][2]
Criticism of military is generally considered as no-go area and fierce critics are treated brutally by the military from enforced disappearances to extrajudicial killings. Some of the critics of Pakistan Army, such as human rights activist Manzoor Pashteen, have been jailed while others like Ahmad Noorani and Taha Siddiqui have been forced to flee the country.[3][4]
Pakistan Army runs Fauji Foundation which sold Khoski Sugar Mill in 2004 for PKR 300 million despite receiving the highest bid of PKR 387 million.[6][7] In 2005, a corruption case was filed in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against then managing director Syed Muhammad Amjad who involved in the corruption.[8]
In 2010, a corruption scandal was unearthed that involved two Pakistan Army generals, (Maj Gen Khalid Zaheer Akhtar and Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal), and caused a loss of Rs.1.8 billion to the National Logistics Corporation through speculative investments between 2004 and 2008.[9][10] In 2015, both of them were convicted by the military court of Pakistan.[11]
Throughout Pakistan's history, the military has maintained a dominant role over civilian governments, a pattern that persisted into the 2020s. Military leaders such as Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, and Pervez Musharraf developed close ties with the United States, often being formally received by U.S. presidents only after assuming power. The elevation of General Asim Munir to field marshal and his meeting with President Donald Trump were seen by analysts as further evidence of military dominance, bypassing civilian leadership and raising concerns about democratic backsliding and diminished public accountability.[13] In June 2025, Pakistan's defense minister publicly endorsed the "hybrid model" of governance, in which the military held significant influence over the civilian government and state affairs through an informal power-sharing arrangement.[14][15] The current hybrid regime in Pakistan, as described by political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais, involves major political parties voluntarily serving as a façade for the military establishment in exchange for legal relief and political relevance, effectively rendering them appendages within a military-dominated power structure.[15]
Pakistan Army was involved in the Islamisation of Pakistan in the past, especially under Zia-ul-Haq's martial law and domestic policy of Islamisation of Pakistan.[16][17][18]Zia-ul-Haq and other military officials began the policy of Islamisation in Pakistan.[17][18][16]
During the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq a "program of Islamization" of the country including the textbooks was started to ingrain school kids with Islamised fundamentals.[19][20] According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, since the 1970s Pakistan's school textbooks have systematically inculcated hatred towards India and Hindus through historical revisionism.[21]Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, under a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism in earnest and exploited this initiative. 'The Pakistani military taught their children right from the beginning that this state was built on the basis of religion – that's why they don't have tolerance for other religions and want to wipe-out all of them.'[22]
General Zia-ul-Haq adopted the 'bleeding India through a thousand cuts' doctrine using covert and low-intensity warfare with militancy and infiltration.[31][30][29]
Involvement in Economy
Pakistan’s military has maintained substantial influence over the country’s economy through both formal and informal means. According to Ayesha Siddiqa’s Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, the military controls a wide-ranging commercial network known as "Milbus," consisting of enterprises that operate outside the official defense budget and are primarily for the benefit of military personnel.[32] These ventures include banks, factories, real estate, and retail businesses, granting the military significant economic autonomy. This economic power has reportedly contributed to the military’s entrenched role in political decision-making and has hindered democratic development by distorting markets and reducing civilian oversight. The military’s influence was further evident in July 2025, when representatives of private foreign exchange companies met with Major General Faisal Naseer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to discuss the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee—an area typically managed by civilian institutions such as the State Bank of Pakistan. This event underscored the military’s informal oversight of financial markets and its broader involvement in economic governance. Despite ongoing economic challenges, including high inflation, rising external debt, and declining foreign reserves—reportedly down to A$5.2 billion in 2025—the military remained financially insulated. Its assets grew from A$30 billion in 2016 to over A$39.8 billion, while its annual budget allocation increased to A$11.27 billion. During this period, senior officers, including General Qamar Javed Bajwa, reportedly accumulated significant personal wealth, and military-affiliated businesses continued to thrive, reflecting the institution’s sustained financial and political influence amid national economic instability.[32][33][34]
In 2025, Pakistan faced severe economic challenges, including 38 percent inflation, critically low foreign reserves, and over 100 million people living below the poverty line, while the military elite reportedly remained financially insulated, maintaining affluent lifestyles and expansive business interests. Amid International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity measures that affected the broader population, the defense budget remained largely protected, rising to approximately PKR 2.13 trillion for the 2024–25 fiscal year. This included an 11 percent increase in military salaries and pensions. In contrast, public spending on essential services remained limited, with education receiving only 2 percent of GDP and healthcare 1.3 percent, highlighting a significant disparity in resource allocation between defense and social sectors.[35]
Pervez Musharraf has conceded that his forces trained militant groups to fight India in Indian-administered Kashmir.[58] He confessed that the government ″turned a blind eye″ because it wanted to force India to enter into negotiations, as well as raise the issue internationally.[58] He also said Pakistani spies in the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) cultivated the Taliban after 2001 because Karzai's government was dominated by non-Pashtuns, who are the country's largest ethnic group, and by officials who were thought to favour India.[59]
Pakistan Navy's officials were found guility of corruption in Karachi affair. Commissions of 6.25% of the contract, approximately €50 million, were paid out to the lobbying firms in Pakistan and France.[61] Some €50m were allegedly paid as "sweeteners" to various senior Pakistan Navy admirals and officers as well as the political leaders. In 1996–97, the Naval Intelligence led by its Director-General, Rear-AdmiralTanvir Ahmed, secretly launched its investigations into this matter and began collecting physical evidence that eventually led to the exposure of Chief of Naval Staff, AdmiralMansurul Haq, in receiving massive monetary commissions in 1997.[62] Massive media coverage and the news of the dismissals of one and two-star admirals tarnished the image of the Navy, with Admiral Fasih Bokhari, who took over the command of the Navy from Admiral Mansurul Haq, forced to attempt damage control of the situation.[63][64]
↑ Newspaper, the (July 2, 2012). "NLC scandal". DAWN.COM. Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. Retrieved December 13, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
1 2 Ḥaqqānī, Husain (2005). Pakistan: between mosque and military. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. p.131. ISBN978-0-87003-214-1. Retrieved 23 May 2010. Zia ul-Haq is often identified as the person most responsible for turning Pakistan into a global center for political Islam. Undoubtedly, Zia went farthest in defining Pakistan as an Islamic state, and he nurtured the jihadist ideology ...
↑ Sitaraman, Srini (2012), "South Asia: Conflict, Hegemony, and Power Balancing", in Kristen P. Williams; Steven E. Lobell; Neal G. Jesse (eds.), Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons: Why Secondary States Support, Follow, or Challenge, Stanford University Press, p.181, ISBN978-0-8047-8110-7 : 'manipulating ethnosectarian conflict and domestic challenges to power across the borders to weaken Indian security through a tactic described by several analysts as "bleed India through a thousand cuts"'
↑ Ganguly, Sumit (31 March 2016). Deadly Impasse. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-76361-5.: 'The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) led attack on Bombay (Mumbai) in November 2008 was emblematic of this new strategy designed to bleed India with a "war of a thousand cuts".'
↑ Pande, Aparna (16 March 2011). Explaining Pakistan's Foreign Policy: Escaping India. Routledge. pp.200, footnote 103. ISBN978-1-136-81893-6.: Pande cites, as an example, Col. Javed Hassan, India: A Study in Profile, Quetta: Services Book Club. A Study conducted for the Faculty of Research and Doctrinal Studies, Command and Staff College (1990)
↑ Chalk, Peter; Fair, C. Christine (December 2002), "Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leads the Kashmiri insurgency"(PDF), Jane's Intelligence Review, 14 (10): 'In the words of Hamid Gul, the former director general of the ISI: "We have gained a lot because of our offensive in Kashmir. This is a psychological and political offensive that is designed to make India bleed through a thousand cuts."'
↑ Gannon, Kathy (28 April 2018). "Pashtun rights group accuses Pakistan army of abuses". Associated Press. A Pakistani human rights group that has accused the military of widespread abuses as it battles Islamist militants in Pakistan's rugged border region with neighboring Afghanistan has emerged as a force among the country's Pashtun minority, drawing tens of thousands to rallies to protest what it contends is a campaign of intimidation that includes extrajudicial killings and thousands of disappearances and detentions.
↑ Mazzetti, Mark; Schmitt, Eric; Savage, Charlie (23 July 2011). "Pakistan Spies on Its Diaspora, Spreading Fear". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2019. Several Pakistani journalists and scholars in the United States interviewed over the past week said that they were approached regularly by Pakistani officials, some of whom openly identified themselves as ISI officials. The journalists and scholars said the officials caution them against speaking out on politically delicate subjects like the indigenous insurgency in Baluchistan or accusations of human rights abuses by Pakistani soldiers. The verbal pressure is often accompanied by veiled warnings about the welfare of family members in Pakistan, they said.
↑ Akbar, Malik Siraj (17 May 2015). "Betrayal in Balochistan". The World Post. Retrieved 25 June 2015. In Pakistan, everyone says they have incontrovertible evidence about India's involvement in destabilizing Balochistan. They only won't share the evidence with you because they insist that when evidence is already too evident then why should one make the evident, evident?
1 2 Brömmelhörster, Jörn; Paes, Wolf-Christian (2004). The Military as an Economic Actor: Soldiers in Business. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.139–140. ISBN9780333999288. The insurance company Shaheen Insurance was founded in 1995 with a view to establishing a partnership with a South African insurance company, Hollard Insurance Ltd. A partnership was finally worked out in 1997, with Hollard owning a 30 per cent share. The South African company was disappointed by the results, however. Its management felt that corruption was a big problem that dampened the prospects of their investment. It is interesting to note that the deal was brokered by an acting Air Force officer who, after retirement, got a job in the company. The South Africans asserted that the deal was negotiated on a one-to-one basis with the officer involved.
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