Pakistan is going through very testing times. Its Chief Executive has just gone through an “Open Heart Surgery”, and four bypasses were needed to put him on the road to health.
Allah has been kind to him and his family as the critical operation has been quite successful.
But that doesn’t mean he will be doing ‘business as usual’ as early as tomorrow. Several weeks are required for him to be declared hundred percent fit to travel and resume his prime ministrial responsibilities.
Meanwhile this much-threatened and seriously-endangered country will be at the mercy of a number of pretenders to power.
Even though Mr Ishaque Dar is the senior minister among several equals, the PM House the defacto seat of power is controlled by Madam Mariam Nawaz, the ambitious and over-assertive daughter of the ailing Prime Minister. Then there are undeclared or well-concealed longings of Chaudhry Nisar Ali and Mian Shahbaz Sharif who both, on the basis of ability and merit, are logical successors to Mian Nawaz Sharif, if he decides to call it a day on medical advice or on his own free will.
Battle for succession starts secretly immediately after it occurs to all that the King after all is a mortal. President Ayub Khan ceased to be the country’s eternal Chief Executive when in December 1967 he fell seriously ill, and a month was required for him to resume his office. It occurred suddenly to many including the-then Army Chief General Yahya Khan that the king was not as immortal as his longings.
Ghulam Mohammad is known to have yearned to rule the country from his grave. Eventually he had to give way to Iskandar Mirza.
Shakespeare wrote: Life is such a stuff as dreams are made of.
If dreams had their way the Army Chief would already be saluting the ailing prime minister’s daughter. But Pakistan is surrounded by real enemies. And it needs a strong Will at the helm of affairs to hold off the nefarious designs of its declared and undeclared enemies.
God give our Prime Minister complete health.
And God give this country the kind of leadership it is missing and it deserves. (Ameen).
