All need to work within their respective domain. This was the message Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani conveyed on Saturday to the state institutions without naming the armed forces and the judiciary, amidst a continuing standoff with the memo and the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) being the central issues.
Though a two-line statement issued by the Presidency after a meeting between Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and President Asif Ali Zardari said the “current security situation was discussed during the meeting”, the prime minister also took advantage of the meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) and used this civil-military forum to defuse the tension by suggesting that it was important for all institutions to work in synergy.
While the prime minister acknowledged that the armed forces of Pakistan were a pillar of the nation’s resilience and strength and that the nation hailed their heroic services in the defence of the motherland, he also mentioned the role of democratic institutions and said the civil institutions too had their due role to play for socio-economic development and for ensuring progress and prosperity.
“Together in complete harmony with each other and other vital institutions we can change the country’s destiny and accord its rightful place in the comity of nations,” he said, understandably in an attempt to defuse the tension. As the tension between the civil and military establishments continued to escalate, the meeting of the DCC had assumed a significant importance. It was for the first time the two sides sat across the table after the recent developments that clearly suggested that the relations between Islamabad and Rawalpindi had become dangerously strained.
“National unity is the need of the hour. Democracy provides avenues to forge national consensus. Each organ and state institution has to play its due role, within its respective domain, to bring forth the best in promoting Pakistan’s national interest,” the prime minister said in his opening remarks at the DCC meeting, adding that the nation’s strength was its institutions. “We will do everything to strengthen our institutions with a view to enhancing their effectiveness and capacity. There should be no ambiguity on this account,” said the premier. He said it had been his government’s policy to allow and enable all state institutions to play their role in their respective domains for the common good of the people of Pakistan. “It is this desire to set good and healthy democratic traditions that has enabled us to always seek strength from the parliament, which is the hallmark of a democratic government,” the prime minister said, underlying the importance of parliament as a sovereign body.
Though a lot was being speculated about the meeting between the COAS and the president, Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said: “A section of the media has speculated on the contents of discussion between the president and army chief in the meeting, the reports, without quoting sources, are hypothetical, based on conjecture and in the realm of speculation.” The report had suggested that the COAS had complained to the president about the prime minister’s interview to a Chinese newspaper. It had also suggested that the COAS had asked the president to make the prime minister withdraw his statement or clarify it.
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