He also Stood but in the Last Row!
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Westridge, Islamabad
Yes, Sir, he also stood but in the last row, fourth from the right with only three others out of the 53 lower in protocol to him.
The occasion was the official group photograph of the Commonwealth Heads of State with Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace, London, and one just can’t understand why the order of seating and standing was not meticulously planned by the organizers of the event. Prime Minister ShahidKhaqanAbbasi, representing the second most populous country (200 plus millions) of the Commonwealth, second only after India (2.1 billion) and ahead of Nigeria (170 million) and Bandladesh (160 million), with the second largest highly professional and well-equipped standing army and the third CW Nuclear Power out of the only 7 world nuclear powers with its delivery system to hurl nukes anywhere across the globe was conspicuous by his absence from the front rows !!
Mr Prime Minister, you might not have felt being out of place at the photo session to stand after the piddling little never or little-heard-of countries like Antigua, Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Fiji, Grenadines, Guyana Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Nauru, Samoa, Seychelles, Tonga and Tobago etc. etc. Sir, you may also be not considering yourself worthy of being a PM and still living under the shadow of Mian Nawaz Sharif or you may also be not feeling slighted in taking off your clothes at the JFK, but Sir, we the nationals of Pakistan, do feel humiliated by such treatment meted out to our Prime Minister. You would have done us and the country great honor by politely declining to be photographed in the manner you were subjected to.
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