The joint Civil-Military leadership summit at the GHQ can easily be regarded as unique, extraordinary and unprecedented. What has been established through this meeting is that in the absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, all authority lies with those who run the GHQ. It is not because the GHQ or General Raheel Sharif wanted this authority; but because the civil response to the security challenges faced by the country is so inadequate, insipid and uninspiring that leaving the country at the mercy of the Nawaz-chosen government or cabinet will be an act of disservice to the Nation.
The Military seems to be so scared of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s India policy— also of his government’s ‘apologetic’ protest to the U.S regarding the sovereignty-challenging drone attack on Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, that it has finally decided to put its heavy boots down, and given a token message to the ailing prime minister and his over-ambitious daughter Maryam Safdar that business as usual will not be allowed.
The main issue deliberated upon in the meeting was the resolve to take the CPEC dream to its coveted fulfillment. It was indirectly resolved that there were security threats to the said project from the perceived and the un-specified enemies of Pakistan. The Military leadership has now made it abundantly clear to the men shaping Mian’s policies that the Prime Minister’s wishful dream of “friendship-at all costs” with India had no future, and that the U.S would not be enjoying free will to challenge Pakistan’s sovereignty and interests.
The noticeable absence from the high-level meeting was that of the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, who had “other more important engagements to attend to”.
One wonders whether the ailing Prime Minister even knew that his cabinet had been summoned to the GHQ.
As far as the People of Pakistan are concerned they are now yearning for more of the GHQ than the Nawaz-Zardari brand of democracy.
