Mumbai, Sept. 13 -- Pakistan's defence procurement has long been fertile ground for patronage. From luxury submarines to land deals, the line between military strategy and private profit often blurs. At the heart of this so-called commission culture are networks of middlemen-retired officers and contractors who grease their palms and fill their bellies and pockets behind the scenes.

As audits have repeatedly noted, big-ticket purchases such as ships, planes, submarines, and weaponry-missiles, guns, bullets, or torpedoes-routinely involve non-transparent pricing and favoured vendors. Alongside weapons, parallel rackets thrive in real estate. The Defence Housing Authority (DHA), for instance, has become a symbol of military-run profiteerin...