All arguments aside, we in Saudi Arabia welcome the PM in the country, hope he will have a satisfactory stay here.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: The government of Pakistan is said to have given a four-day holiday in celebration of Eidul Fitr since it probably decided that it was better to shut the offices rather than make half-asleep, unproductive employees work.
Can the same be applied to the leaders of the country? It has been reported that Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif is now in Saudi Arabia on a 12-day holiday to perform Umrah.
At this point in time when Pakistan is facing the worst sort of power crisis, and while the country is struggling to provide shelter and food to more than one million people who were recently displaced from North Waziristan, is it wise for the prime minister to be absent? In addition, the Pakistani Taliban who have found safe haven in Afghanistan in a timely manner before the start of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, all thanks to the so-called peace negotiations with the terrorists, are now grouping up along with their Afghan comrades to wage counter-attacks on the Pakistan Army while heavily-armed militants were found hiding just a few kilometres away from Nawaz’s private residence in Raiwind. Looking at all this, is the PM’s 12-day long absence justified?
Others may not agree but in my opinion it is mere carelessness on the part of the prime minister. If his Umrah visit was that necessary in the blessed month of Ramazan, then it could have been concluded in a day or two. But all arguments aside, we in Saudi Arabia welcome the prime minister in the country and hope that he will have a satisfactory stay here.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2014.
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