So there's two issues here.
One issue is salaries and most importantly pensions - both civilian and military. This is a direct function of our faltering economy that is unable to produce jobs and thus the government takes the easy route of handing out government jobs. You don't need to be an expert to see why this is unsustainable and really bad.
The other issue is the shrinking size of the economic pie. The military (and judiciary and politicians) has been able to keep its perks and privileges by being more and more extractive of the poor population in the name of national security. So they have had no real incentive to do anything about the shrinking pie because for them life has gone on as usual. Now maybe there is maybe some realization that life will not go on as usual for long with Pakistan's unprecedented bad economy. This is is evident from the national security policy that came out. But I don't know how much of that has actually sunk into the institutions. My hope is that this realization comes before we go bankrupt and not after it.
On a tangent: The relationship of Pakistan's elite and the land is really messed up. The whole idea of generals and judges retiring with large swaths of land is a relic of the British Raj, which essentially makes them zameendars. If our system turns all of our elite into zameendars why would anything be done to rationalize land reforms? Those that don't become zameendars become Bahria town employees and what not. Our obsession with zameen is really toxic.
Unfortunately, the cuts right now are affecting procurement (which annoys us on the forum), but (from what I can see) not as much in the way of salaries, perks, or pensions (which would also be bad, but is the type of 'pain' that gets more of the armed forces to wake up to the economic problems).
Regarding land, did you know that even Islam has a land tax? It's called Kharaj. When he was Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab (RA) refused to dole out land to the warriors who fought in the Levant, Persia and Egypt. He (RA) told them (one of which was Bilal RA, funnily enough) that Rasul'Allah (SAW) gave away land before because the Muslims were poor. Since by this point the Sahaba (RA) weren't poor, Umar (RA) didn't want to give them the land.
Instead, Umar (RA) returned the land to the market and put the Kharaj tax on whoever bought or owned that land. Not only that, but Umar (RA) himself said that he was taxing the land to fund the new standing army (the
Jund, which was recruiting new converts in Persia, Byzantine regions, Egypt, etc) with wages, fortresses along the frontiers, the new navy in Egypt, the widows and orphans, etc.
I'm just bringing this up because this idea of taxing land isn't an advanced rocket "saanse" (science) or a radical "laa" (law). It's common sense. But like many obvious good things in life, our leaders perennially evade it.
