Not even old school
In the new millennium, more than anything else, concepts of efficiency and waste will dominate policy-making, former US President Bill Clinton famously remarked at the turn of the century. And there can be little denying that the new world’s real time information superhighway, among other things, has brought these very concepts to the fore of statesmanship. Unfortunately, though, such advice does not find many takers in Islamabad; especially among PML-N stalwarts that are responsible for our policy making till the turn of the election cycle, at least.
Take the case of our interior minister, for example. His novel reaction to the drone strike (that took out Mullah Mansour) is not his first response to a high-profile incident that left some people confused. Not everybody has forgotten how Hakeemullah Mehsud’s droning left him teary eyed in the National Assembly; and he could not badmouth the US enough for the strike. Also, he was just as confused when the military put its foot down after the Karachi airport incident and initiated Zarb-e-Azb. It’s another thing altogether, of course, that he did not take long to fall in line, like everybody else who wanted the talks with the Taliban to continue indefinitely, no matter how many innocent Pakistanis they killed in the meantime.
But the decision to check all 180 million national identity cards, in the wake of the Mullah Mansour killing, makes very little sense. Of course, we will have verified ID cards at the end of the exercise – that is if, and it’s not a small if, the interior ministry can ensure transparent checking – but at what opportunity cost? Would the investment in time, money, personnel, etc, justify such a reaction, that too from the interior minister? And that’s not all about the matter where he has acted strangely. Why the long denial about the identity, especially when Kabul, Washington and the Taliban had all verified Mansour’s death? Perhaps Ch Nisar will say he is old school and prefers thorough, instead of superficial, investigations. But while old school was thorough alright, it was not about moving round in circles and achieving nothing. The PM must take note of the goings on at the interior ministry before this inefficiency creeps in any further.
Very right Sir. We are eating dust on the Foreign Policy front and now Interior. What Ch Nisar is doing or wants to do is like asking for the moon. Two wrongs don't make one right. First three years were lost in owning the damege on both fronts and now remaining two to mend the fences which looks next to impossible. May be.
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