MFN to India

The MFN status is no big a news, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s claim that Pakistan army was onboard about the decision of granting it is certainly an explosion. It is not that the military establishment does not want it to, but the bigger news is the government seems to have played the best shot of its political career by creating the impression reportedly through its pre-conceived statements, saying the army was taken into confidence before the decision of granting the MFN status.
No one amongst the journalists’ community, nor could the political circles gauge, as Sheikh Rashid has perceived, that the factual position can be other way around. All newspaper editorials and most of the TV talk shows discussed the merits and demerits of the decision to grant MFN status to India, and as a result it seemed 95 percent votes went to the favour.
This is being exploited by both electronic and print media in India and other countries and the mum on the side of military adds to the confusion. Some believe that the army has reason not to speak, so to avoid giving wrong impression that there exist differences between the government and establishment, at a moment when deliberate attempts are being made to drag the army in, go impatient and react. The Zardari-memo issue is another such example. The cool heads must evaluate as to who wants it to exploit to what extent.

F Z KHAN
Islamabad