Good form, the presidency denying the news report about the subject of the army chief and the president’s discussion. Immensely respected news agency or not, the Reuters’ news item was embarrassing to all patriotic Pakistanis. Here was, according to the report, the army chief, asking for the prime minister to either give a clarification of his recent statement to a Chinese daily or to retract it completely. It is good that the presidency denied the news item.
Certain other things, however, cannot be denied. The recent ISPR press release that accused the prime minister of falsehood regarding the very same infamous statement, for instance. Here, the spin agency of the armed forces also warned the premier of “grave consequences for the nation.” This is no different from the PRO of the Federal Bureau of Statistics publishing a caustic judgment call on a statement of the prime minister.
The prime minister didn’t take any of this lying down either. Speaking to reporters, he said, without specifically naming any institution, “if anyone has any complaints, I will not answer to any individual as I am answerable to parliament.”
In the context of all this, the meeting of the cabinet’s defence committee, over which the PM presided the other day, would have been a tad awkward, what with the army chief, amongst others, being told by the PM about how no institution should ever cross the limits set for it by the constitution. Murmuring approval at the meeting would have been the newly appointed defence secretary, whose being handed to the post would still be smarting to the services’ chiefs.
All the institutions of the state owe it to the people not to become some sort of dystopian nightmare state where the chain of command and order of precedence are abused at will. The ruling coalition is inept – not as inept as the mainstream media might have one believe, but inept nonetheless – at handling the issues that affect the daily lives of the people. So will the next one be, and the one after that if all elected government feel the need to constantly watch over their shoulders to see who is to truncate their given mandate.