A senior journalist while reporting about the tax evasion of General Pervez Musharraf said that he was presently enjoying free treatment at the cost of taxpayers’ money. The very tone and texture of the above news piece not only smacks of his bitter bias against Musharraf but also betrays his ignorance. Gen Musharraf being an ex-army is entitled to free medical treatment in the military hospitals like any other ordinary soldier. For his information even a soldier, an airman of the PAF and a sailor of the Pakistan Navy will get the same treatment at the AFIC should they be admitted there for any heart ailment.
So Musharraf is not enjoying any free treatment at the cost of taxpayers’ money but what he is entitled to. You and your dependents (wife, unmarried children and old dependent parents) too would have ‘enjoyed’ the same medical treatment had you been in the army or even retired from it.
COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD),
Rawalpindi, January 5.