In the Pak Army, there are many cases where officers are not promoted to higher ranks due to favoritism and politics. The senior command may find it very easy to sign a decision over their files but it severely affects the lifestyles and future of a family and its generations to come. This is no new topic, there have been countless such incidents where Merit was overtaken by personal relation and liking for a senior promotion. Why doesn't the senior command have a transparent criteria set for a promotion from Brigadier to Maj-Gen level? What special analytical skills are required to decide the fate of a handful of selected people? If a person has met all the criteria, but was unfortunate enough for not being able to play golf with a corp commander, or his children were not best friends with the commander's children. Only recently I jut came across such a case, where the officer was a fellow deserving a 2 star promotion but was superseded by his junior who was famous in the corp for manipulation and politics. Why wasn't merit truly considered here?