The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government will fork out hundreds of thousands of United States dollars to pay Pakistani military experts who have arrived in Harare to help train and equip the army, which has been weakened by mass resignations of experienced officers.
Safdara Hayat, the first secretary at the Pakistani embassy in Harare, confirmed the arrival of the first four senior military experts from the Asian country in an interview with ZimOnline on Tuesday. He said they were all seconded to the Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ).
President Robert Mugabe’s government routinely sends AFZ helicopter gunships flying above cities to scare anti-government protesters away from the streets.
The Pakistani experts have arrived in the country at a time when the nation faces growing threats of strike action by long-suffering workers. The government fears these strikes might escalate into a bigger social-unrest problem.
The government has been heavily recruiting to replace army and police officers, deserting in droves to find better paying jobs in neighbouring countries and beyond.
Reports from Pakistan suggest that more military experts are on their way to Zimbabwe.
While Hayat professed ignorance at the exact amount the Pakistani officers would be paid, he nonetheless confirmed that the Zimbabwe government would be responsible for paying their salaries.
Pakistani’s Daily Times newspaper earlier reported that the experts had been deployed only after Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved a revised agreement, which offered improved conditions of service for experts seconded to the Zimbabwean army and air force.
The newspaper said that Pakistani officers from the rank of captain to brigadier and those of equivalent ranks in the Pakistani armed forces would, on their deputation to Zimbabwe, get monthly salaries in the range of $1 500 to $3 300 and other allowances and privileges, such as free accommodation and medical cover.
The report said that the monthly salary of troops in lower ranks would be from $615 to $712, excluding other allowances and privileges.
The amounts are a far cry from the poor salaries paid to Zimbabwean military and police personnel, especially those in the lower tiers of the security forces.
For example, police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri says in a confidential memo shown to ZimOnline this week that at least 10% of the country’s 26 000 police officers would leave the force within the first quarter of the year because of poor pay.
Junior soldiers are also said to be leaving the army in their hundreds, a development that should certainly be worrying to Mugabe’s government, which has, in recent years, relied heavily on the security forces to keep public discontent in check in the face of worsening food shortages and economic hardships.
But the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on Tuesday strongly condemned the Harare administration’s deal with Pakistani, saying it was all part of Mugabe’s attempts to keep power at all costs.
Nelson Chamisa, who is spokesperson of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, said: “Their pre-occupation is to defend power at all costs at the expense of the livelihoods of their people.
“There is no justification whatsoever to be importing gunmen instead of grain or importing ammunition and bombs instead of fuel. This rogue regime ought to be isolated and we don’t understand why Pakistan is doing this.”
The experts will stay in Zimbabwe for at least two years, though their tenures can be extended under the military pact.
Safdara said Pakistani had a long history of cooperating with Zimbabwe and there was nothing unusual with the military deal. “In fact there is nothing new about it. It’s only that is has been renewed,” he said. — ZimOnline