Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday presided over a National Security meeting in Islamabad in which he stressed the need for a more co-ordinated effort on the part of the Federal Government and the Provincial Governments to carry out and carry on the National Action Plan designed to root out terrorism in the country. Interestingly, the man who has made it a mission of his life to wage war on terrorists till they and their networks are destroyed was not present in the meeting. That man arguably the most popular man in the country today, is known to the world as General Raheel Sharif who in his capacity as the Chief of Army Staff is the ultimate man responsible for National Security.
The difference in the stated goals of the PM and the COAS is that while the PM shudders at the thought of linking corruption and ill-gotten money with the networks created for terrorist activities, the COAS has been laying, since long, greater emphasis on the need to eliminate corruption from the country the practitioners of which are the facilitators of terrorism.
This is a fundamental conceptual difference between the two super power-wielders. Because of this conceptual difference, the practitioners of corruption— those who regard ill-gotten money as a ‘legitimate’ benefit of being in power— are waiting for November 2016 to arrive sooner than later.
In the last week of November this year, the man who talks of fighting against corruption and terrorism till the final victory will be calling it a day.
And the politicians who hold power in the country will be celebrating their victory.
This reminds me of the Indian General Chaudhry’s ‘famous’ resolve to have a drink in Lahore Gymkhana by the end of the 6th of September 1965 when the Indian army had invaded Pakistan earlier in the midnight.
