What is good for the goose…
They might have gone too far, the ANP’s Bushra Gohar and the PML(N)’s Chaudhry Nisar, in demanding the resignation of the ISI chief but their logic does not have any internal inconsistencies.
The military and the elected government are clearly not on the same page here. As the two sides prepare their cases in the Supreme Court, there is much amiss. The army, for instance, believes in the “reality” of the memo and that it was a conspiracy launched against the national security of the country. The civilian government, on the other hand, which had been maintaining all along that the memo did not exist and that US-national Mansoor Ijaz is a dubious character whose word should not be trusted, has appended the same person’s later claim concerning General Pasha. Both sides have been picking and choosing within Mansoor Ijaz’s statements.
The spin doctors have already started coming out of the woodworks. A series of one-step-forward-two-steps-back arguments are being made to distinguish these two claims made by the same person. There is much double-think.
The republic is never exactly a Swiss watch even at the best of times, but there is palpable political uncertainty in the federal capital at the moment. The political class is often the target of much ire when it comes to governance. That all stems from the political parties’ inability to cultivate within them the capacity for responding to the challenges of the times. And that is not possible when elected governments are constantly watching over their shoulders, even if needlessly, and wondering whether they will be able to complete their terms in office. The people of the country deserve better than this.