The making of Munir-Pindi: How Pakistan’s military tightened its grip

New Delhi: What has a 300-acre plush real estate project and a luxury Naval Sailing Club got to do with Pakistan's controversial 27th Constitution amendment, which literally handed over Islamabad to Rawalpindi and lifelong legal immunity to Asim Munir? Going by the silent reversal of a 2022 Islamabad High Court (IHC) order last week, the connection strikes at the heart of the military's agitation to firmly re-establish its ownership of the Pakistan State.

First, the case. In 2022, the then IHC chief justice, Athar Minallah, delivered a seminal judgement against the Pakistan Navy for undertaking a real estate project with private developers called PN (Pakistan Navy) Farms. The land, according to the ruling, was mutated to the Pakistan Navy from one private person and then a no-objection certificate was obtained from the Capital Development Authority to carry out this project involving construction of farmhouses, homes and orchards.

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"The engagement of the armed forces, which is a transgression from the constitutional mandate eg undertaking commercial or real estate ventures etc is definitely not in the public interest," stated the order, adding that Pakistan Navy letterheads and offices were used to communicate with local occupants to pressure them to abide by what were being called the PN land bylaws.

The court struck down the mutation and related NOC as "unconstitutional", and the PN bylaws were termed illegal. Further, it asked Pakistan's audit authorities to carry out detailed financial forensics of the project as "palatial farmhouses" had come up in the area.

In the sailing club case, it ordered criminal proceedings against the then Pakistan Navy chief, Admiral Zafar Mehmud Abbasi, who had inaugurated the club built on land "illegally encroached" by the Pak Navy. The ruling ordered demolition of club building, stating that land around the Rawal Lake, where the club was built, belonged to the Small Dams Authority and fell within the Margalla National Park.

It pointed out that the Navy was served notices by the National Wild Life protection authorities and CDA against construction over an elaborate club and yet went ahead with building work. "Admiral Zafar Mehmud Abbasi, chief of Naval Staff, and other officers involved in the illegal construction and inauguration of the sailing club have made themselves liable to criminal proceedings under section 46 and section 19 of the Ordinance of 1960 and the Act of 1997respectively. The competent authorities...shall ensure criminal proceedings are initiated forthwith."

This action against a serving Navy chief was unprecedented as alongside, the ruling carved out the constitutional confines of the armed forces. It also said the armed forces could not acquire real estate for commercial purposes, which Rawalpindi had always assumed as settled in their favour when Zial Ul Haq took over the defence cooperative society in Karachi in 1980, converted it into the Defence Housing Authority and placed it under the Karachi Corps Commander.

So, when Gen Asim Munir became Field Marshal and Chief of Defence Forces through the 27th amendment, he brought in all the service chiefs under CDF. This meant that any inquiry against them is indirectly protected by the lifetime legal immunity to CDF.

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The second move was the creation of the Federal Constitution Court that took away powers from the high courts and the Pakistan Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution as was done by justice Minallah in PN Farms and sailing club case. One of the first anticipated steps was to transfer the appeal against Minallah's order to FCC. However, Minallah resigned in protest against the 27th amendment and the matter was placed before a two-judge bench of IHC. On September 2, the bench reversed Minhallah's order, stopped demolition of the club as well as the proceedings against Abbasi.

With this, the Pakistan Army has settled any challenge to its control over all organs of the state and by extension, the country's real estate - an enterprise on which Rawalpindi will never let Islamabad in, let alone govern.