Of course it was created by the army. I dont think even Leiven would seriously dispute that.
The whole notion that somehow Pakistan in the 1990s was awash with free lance heroes who would suddenly get up one day and create large armed organizations and start training in well organized training camps without the army knowing, helping or basically creating the whole setup, is something no one except maybe Brian Cloughley, can believe. SInce 2001, sure, the army has indeed lost control of some people. But the project of training half a million armed men and deploying them as needed was an army project. period.
Pakistani leftists would say that the project of protecting those deemed essential to future plans is also an army project. The leftists may be absolutely correct about that. But in the interest of fairness, I would say that there is a non-zero possibility that SOME people at high levels do want to gradually get rid of these organizations, but dont seem to be able to do it and in fact, dont give a very convincing picture of even trying or THINKING about trying to do so.
That is about the MOST charitable you can be and to be this charitable you have to believe a few other things before breakfast, so its not exactly easy...