News
Thursday, May 12, 2011
PML-N proposal a recipe for national salvation
By Muahmmad Akram
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has nipped the current security and political fiasco being confronted by the country in the bud by raising the demand for a judicial commission to probe the national humiliation caused by the May 2 Abbottabad episode during which the world’s most wanted man Osama bin Laden was killed in a covert US special forces’ operation.
The PML-N chief has, in fact, acted with political acumen to get the nation out of a state of denial it has been living in for decades because of a strong control of military and intelligence establishment over all state and civil society institutions, be it parliament, judiciary or political parties of the country. “Nawaz Sharif has in fact refused to budge from a call from hawks within the party, including his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, and the likes of opposition leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to let the PPP government face the music and avoid making a call for a high-profile judicial commission to probe the matter as the same could amount to displeasing the high command of the security and intelligence establishment”, said a party source privy to the details of the meetings.
“The argument of hawks in the party was that raising a demand for judicial probe would further push the military establishment on the defensive and could result in strengthening the PPP-led coalition government,” said the source, adding that “the argument was rebutted strongly by majority of others who see going in a docile fashion on the matter would help those ‘responsible for the fiasco to get off the hook.’
The PML-N chief, said another source present in the meeting, told the party’s high command that the time had come to rise above the party politics and strengthen the system of check and balance once and for all.
The sources said that there was almost a consensus at this all important PML-N meeting that the PPP government which was struggling in power with the help of unreliable and a bunch of opportunist political parties and individuals could not take a daring step of holding a thorough investigation into the matter.
The PML-N chief quickly got the sense of the meeting and had in fact acted the way he had prepared himself to choose a path that could help the political system rather than the forces that had been acting against it in the name of undefined national interest.
“The national interest of the country lies in strengthening the institutions and they can only be strengthened by not holding them supreme but the institutions they are running on merit of by default,” a source quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying during the meeting.
The PML-N chief’s announcement is quite welcoming for the PPP as it has been in a state of denial like the entire nation due to lack of political support, a high-profile member of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s federal cabinet said.
The member, while seeking anonymity, said since the matter involved high stakes for the government in the present fiasco and the initial silence on the part of the government functionaries was deliberate since the high command didn’t want to get into a suicidal mode by uttering to the total dismay of the military establishment.
A PPP member, who enjoys a great respect at almost all the tiers of the party, said the party’s high command would mostly likely welcome the demand as it would benefit the cause of the party for which it had been striving and rendering sacrifices since its inception.
A political observer sees a great chance of the revival of the spirit of Charter of Democracy (CoD) the PPP and the PML-N had signed but could not stick to it due to lapses by both the parties in pursuit of their respective party agendas.
The political pundits said the points agreed between the PPP and the PML-N in the CoD pertaining to the placement of the country in the regions’ geo-political and economic realities are being addressed well by the PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz Sharif has rightly pointed out the decaying security and intelligence system of the country in the wake of Abbottabad fiasco not only in terms of physical strength but also on the ideological front as well.
“The now exposed security and intelligence system demands a thorough revisiting of the entire structure of the country’s security and intelligence establishment, besides making them subservient to the constitution,” observed the pundits.
“People need to know how and for what the country’s security and intelligence establishment operates,” said the observer, adding that it was high time that subsequent to the judicial probe another commission should also be included, comprising retired security personnel of high eminence and given the task to define the national security, its requirements and relations with the democratically elected government in line with the world democracies.
The observer said the PPP and the PML-N needed to act now to implement one of the fundamental points of the CoD regarding the scrutiny of the defence budget through open debate in parliament.
It is also high time for both the PPP and the PML-N to act for the ultimate say of parliament on all security issues of the country and foreign policy matters, particularly for the region.
The observer said the hegemony of the security establishment needed to be done away with sooner rather than the later and made it work within the parameters as laid down in the constitution.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk