Who is minding the store?

It certainly doesn’t appear to be the PM

Nawaz Sharif is acting like an absentee landlord. He is badly needed at home for besides myriad of other problems the country is fighting an existential war against the terrorist outfits. Hopes roused by the government about the improvement of relations with India have failed to materialise. With sanctions on Iran going to be finally lifted, there is a dire need for active diplomacy to enhance the level of relations with Tehran. There are also internal issues that need to be resolved, including the tussle between the Rangers and MQM which can have far reaching political consequences. The Prime Minister whose presence in the country is badly needed is absent from the scene for the last more than a week.

The lack of dynamism in Nawaz Sharif encourages his critics to draw unflattering comparisons between him and the COAS who spent a busy Eid, meeting the soldiers in North Waziristan and addressing the IDPs in Bannu. The fight against the terrorists has now shifted to the urban areas where the civilian government is required to play the leading role. One had expected Sharif to goad the ministries concerned to implement the National Action Plan. This has failed to happen. Neglect on the part of the provincial government has led to Karachi having been handed over to the Rangers. If the NAP is not implemented in letter and spirit, Rangers might be required to control law and order in Lahore in days to come.

Failure on the part of the Sindh government to mind the store has led to a situation where the Rangers are gradually expanding their sphere of activities from policing and dealing with financial scams to monitoring the political activities of the largest party of urban Sindh. There is a perception that the PML-N government is already playing a second fiddle to the army. Unless it is seen to be performing its duties efficiently, it would continue to lose its turf thus allowing the system to turn into a quasi-democracy.