Institutionalising army’s role in business
The formation of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) — a ‘hybrid’ civil-military forum created to attract investment from the Gulf countries — anticipates the civilian leadership’s failure to ensure policy predictability, continuity, or execution. At the same time, the initiative has “institutionalised” the army’s increasing role in the country’s economic decision-making. The government had rushed a bill through the parliament to amend the Board of Investment (BoI) law last week to provide a legal cover to the initiative, which was termed by the political and military leadership as a ‘bigger’ economic project than the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at the time of the creation of the SIFC in June as part of the new economic revival plan. The SIFC will serve as an interface for investors and remove all the bottlenecks to investment with the help of the army. The army will have a significant role in the new council, with the army chief being a member of its apex committee along with the prime minister. An army official will act as the director general of its executive committee and its national coordinator. The body’s implementation committee will also be headed by an army officer.