In addition, that media presser came from a man who, when took over the helm of ISI, specifically, showed distinct care of not coming out into any limelight and did not even allow his images to be circulated in the media when news is being reported about official government business vis-a-vis Security establishment and the government. One hopes there will be no repeat of this ever again.
The onus to restore the image of armed forces is on the new COAS as he has to demonstrate the will of the institution to not to overlap any of the boundaries already defined in the constitution of Pakistan.
Very rightly so as being done, General Syed Asim Munir does not have to make any speeches or issue press releases but with his continuous professional conduct and actions, people of this country would be able to sense the stability in the governing setup and a smooth path to next general elections.
Politicians should take the initiative and sit together as custodians of parliamentary democracy working towards the betterment of the country on both internal and external fronts.
Awakening after 75 years will still be considered an early and pleasant awakening for Pakistan.
Recently it was reported that there are some contacts made between the PDM government and the PTI. Also there were several meetings reportedly between the President Arif Alvi and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. It is a good gesture that finally Imran Khan is ready to talk to the government, however his choice of words still has to be ‘politically correct’. Creating an environment of conduciveness is not easy after his continuous criticism of the current political lot of the present day.
In any offers of discussions the addition of the word ‘If’ creates a sense of antagonism amongst the other party. When he says PTI is ready to talk, he should end his statement there without adding that ‘if’ the government does not announce early elections (before March 2023) he will dissolve the KP and Punjab Assemblies. This is yet to materialize but any delay in action on his words would only muddy the water more. Instead something opposite of his narrative is happening in the province of Punjab, recently it was reported that one of the PTI MPA took oath to become a minister and the PTI leader did not know about this development and reportedly reacted by saying I am ‘unaware’.
The party chairman not knowing what his comrades are doing is indicative of something cardinally wrong with the party and the leadership thereof. This is especially worrisome because of the situation PTI is in right now, with nothing seems to be working in their favor.
Before a complete disintegration Imran Khan should revisit his strategy of offering carrots and threatening with sticks at the same time. The way he conducts his politics brings more harm to the party than value.
PML (Q) in Punjab is impulsively adding to PTI’s already volatile political standing and adding to its instability Imran himself is to blame for this quagmire the PTI is in right now. Once the PDM hastily removed him from power with no-confidence motion in an untimely manner and immediately started to pay the price, however, now what Imran Khan has been doing since the last 8 months is not only shooting himself in the foot (not in literal terms) but opening up many fronts of adversity for himself and his party and at the same time giving PDM advantage to get some dividends from his dwindling stances.
We need political stability to get economic stability which would instill some confidence in international partners who would then be prepared to deliberate on investing in Pakistan.
Imran’s previous deadlines and announcements never worked before so how is he still choosing to give other party deadlines and ‘if not’ threat scenarios. His May 25th six days announcement did not work and his threats to shutdown Rawalpindi and Islamabad if not the whole Pakistan did not bear any positive results, therefore he should start to act like a responsible political leader who wants change but that change will only come within reason and will be slow.
He still has time to go back to parliament and decide all matters there. When people see him fighting for them in the parliament or at least raising his voice for their betterment, they will certainly be prepared to trust his promises again and will be inclined to vote for him in the next elections.
PTI should put their house in order as soon as they can. This is the only sensible way but the journey should begin without threats. Stage is set for a new beginning.