Poor Pak’s rich army sitting on assets worth $20 billion

Top Pakistan military officers are unlikely to be affected by the economic crisis that the volatile country is going through and has sought a financial bailout package of $7 billion from International Monetary Fund (IMF)—the first in five years and the 13th overall in Pakistan’s history.

The Pakistan army is comfortably sitting on assets and companies whose worth, according to Pakistan based experts, is more than $20 billion. This has never been al- lowed to be impacted by any economic recession. The extent of financial control that the Pakistan military exercises is phenomenal.

The details of the assets owned by the Pakistan army were officially shared by the Pakistan Defence Ministry in July 2016 with members of the Pakistan Senate. These include 50 housing projects that are run through several foundations, oil and gas drilling projects, stud farms, an aviation company and a diesel producing company, which has tied up with the world’s largest US-based oil and gas company, Exxonmobil.

All these and many more such companies, whose capital is generated by the top generals of the armed forces of Pakistan over the years, are managed by the “Army Welfare Trust” (AWT), a conglomerate that came up in 1971 and is entirely managed by top officials of the Pakistan army.

Those tracking the developments in Pakistan state that most of these companies—which are controlled by the military indirectly