The COAS and the CHAOS
So whats up with the Resignation of the prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan? Our honorable Prime minister, while addressing the parliament on the issue of “Who asked the COAS to intervene” tried pretty hard to look Confident and In-Control-of-the-situation by insisting that He has some authority after all in a country who chose him ( or rather, was made to choose him) as the head of the institution. He argued that It wasn’t him or any other government official who asked Army’s help to control the tense situation in Islamabad.
While this seems quite awkward, its absurd too. I think most of the people glued to their television screens since the last 48 hours, 72 hours or more already know that the PM has been meeting the COAS quite frequently since the last couple of days. And obviously this can’t be termed “Regular meetings” since we all know about the usual tensions between the PMLN governments and the military for quite some time. At a time when Nawaz Sharif’s credibility is at stake, his on going meetings with the COAS definitely meant SOMETHING! Plus the statements by Chaudhry Nisar about asking the Army to solve the crisis are on record. Too bad the Government ran out of options other than lying to a Parliament which is facing the current accusations of Electoral fraud and rigging by the PMLN majority.
So why was the COAS intervention necessary? Well for the majority… they know Nawaz Shareef’s problem solving and crisis management skills have always faced severe criticism, due to his inabilities to solve the national issues with a more NATIONALISTIC approach! His constant meetings with the COAS and then an announced Request-for-help to the military, which made COAS to meet up with the two Leaders who are the basic reason of Nawaz’s insomnia these days, clearly shows He is desperately trying to divert the Resignation demands of the Dharna crowd, even for a month as Imran Khan clarified.
His face saving attempts appear too immature, for once he and his Mushaawarati-committees could never come up with an option of not involving the Army into it as this will create a public sentiment which will be definitely against him and his party. PMLN has been advocating democracy since their last faceoff with the Ex-President Musharraf, preaching Democratical solutions for national issues. But this leadership completely failed to provide a “Democratic” solution to the problem,. One reason might be that Nawaz Shareef is making this a PERSONAL egoistic issue. Imran is right in claiming that until the investigation into the massive rigging in Elections continues, NS can’t remain at the PM seat, as this will surely put the investigation’s credibility into doubt. But Shareef just isn’t ready to loos the job he kind of, dreamed off since the last 15 years or so.
If you are listening Mr.Nawaz shareef, This is the general public sentiment against you which is driving away many of your devoted voters and loyalists too…. for everyone sane enough to know the democratic processess in the West, knows that Resignation is quite a logical and constitutional demand. By calling COAS to intervene and now lying infront of the parliament about it, is something that has created another CHAOS … If the current tensions between the govt and the military continues to escalate due to PM’s unethical face saving and lying stunts, the Dharna crowd is surely getting bonus points for victory!!