PM in the town

It’s the last week of Ramazan. Most of the educational institutes in Pakistan are closing down and attendance in government offices is going thinner by day, as everyone is getting off for shopping to celebrate Eid next week. That’s understandable and that’s why the government has announced five holidays as it’s better to close the offices instead of having half-asleep unproductive employees.

But how come the same is applicable for the country’s top leadership. It’s being reported that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is now in Saudi Arabia on a 12-day holidays to perform umrah. At a time when Pakistan is facing worst sort of power load shedding and breakdowns, providing shelter and food to more than one million people recently displaced from North Waziristan has become a nightmare, Pakistani Taliban who left to safety in Afghanistan in a timely manner before start of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb, thanks to so-called peace negotiations with the terrorists, are now grouping along with their Afghan comrades to wage counter attacks on army, heavily armed religious militants found hiding few kilometres from Sharifs’ private residence in Raiwind, political fever is steadily rising in the country as several opposition parties are threatening a long march on the capital Islamabad on Aug 14, can we justify PM’s 12-day long excursion?

Some may argue that it shows PM’s confidence and strong nerves that he can leave the country as a well-established system will take care of the ongoing issue on its own. However, in my opinion, its mere carelessness on the part of the PM. If his umrah visit was that necessary in the blessed month of Ramazan, then it could have been concluded in 1-2 days. Anyhow, we in Saudi Arabia welcome the PM in the country.

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail, Saudi Arabia