Dr Mazari’s loud rant on things ‘strategic’

Our parliament does look laughable, when no person is present to take questions related to defence and foreign affairs

Nobody can beat Dr Shireen Mazari of the PTI when it comes to making noises on things ‘strategic.’ She did not surprise me by forcing Ayaz Sadiq to let her speak on a point of order immediately after the question hour Thursday.

The third Nawaz government has yet to appoint ministers for defence and foreign affairs. She pointed out this handicap with absolute contempt. Our sovereign-pretending parliament does look laughable, when no person is present on government benches to take questions related to defence and foreign affairs.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan often acts as the master of all trades while dealing with parliamentary business. Taking advantage of his presence, Dr Mazari addressed him directly and pressed for comments on the news of five Pakistanis, allegedly killed by Afghan army in a border village of Balochistan the other day.

The super patriot in Dr Mazari did not sound so upset with this incident per se. Far more annoying to her was the ‘audacious act of the Afghan Army,’ which most of our strategic thinkers disregard as a chaotic outfit of ill disciplined conscripts. Nisar tried his best to calm her with reassuring words and promised to facilitate submission of accurate details, ASAP. In a forgiving mood, Dr Mazari preferred to trust him.

It now is becoming increasingly obvious, however, that the government needs to appoint at least two ministers of state to speak on defence and foreign affairs in both houses of parliament. Nawaz Sharif is yet not convinced, though.

During his previous two terms, he always appeared as if a leader in haste. When it came to decision making, he mostly behaved as if moving speedily in fast lanes. This time round, he appears more like the guarded opener of a cricket team taking runs to build a formidable innings for the five-day game. Even his most trusted aides are embarrassingly clueless about the ‘big picture’ that he might be having in his mind. He loves presiding exhaustive brainstorming sessions with professionals, bureaucrats and entrepreneurs of all kinds and bombard them with questions, but seldom speaks his mind. Little wonder, to most of us he looks confused and sluggish while heading his third government.

After a series of off-the-record meetings with some of his aides, I can now report that Nawaz Sharif is being deliberately deceptive in pursuing a paradigm shift that may gradually enable the elected civilians to take full charges of issues related to national security and foreign affairs. I do not need to remind you as to who has been in charge of these fields since the mid-1970s. Almost four decades of this command and control have pushed our diplomats down to the level of glorified babus. They have even stopped thinking, forget speaking up.

There are but only three ‘regulars’ left in our Foreign Office who now wait for being posted as ambassadors to various countries. Not for the reasons of personal likes or dislikes, the prime minister does not want to send any of them to an important station like Washington. He continues to rather search for a person with ‘IT-material’ from other sectors to appoint as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US.

There at least are two prominent journalists, who seriously believe that if given a chance, they can outshine ambassadors like Dr Lodhi and Ms Sherry Rehman, but “they” suspect them as ‘potential Hussain Haqqanis’. I will thus not be surprised if in the end a retired General makes it to Washington and reliable sources claim that Shahbaz Sharif has been “at it” for many weeks, without any success though.

During the maiden session of the National Security Committee around two weeks ago, all participants had agreed to turn the NSC into a fully-fledged, mother-of-all-institutions kind of policy-making outfit. They had also decided that Pakistan’s current ambassador to Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, should be appointed as full-time secretary of the NSC. But “the minutes” of this maiden session could still not take the form of an official draft, agreed by all stakeholders. There is a bureaucratic hitch as well: the Cabinet Secretary feels that he or she has the legitimate right to head the NSC secretariat, presumably a subordinate body of the cabinet.

As already reported in this column, there also are powerful operators wired to powerful types who do not feel comfortable with the idea of Sartaj Aziz consolidating his influence as a powerful National Security Adviser of a democratically elected government that seems determined to assert its authority in all fields. Dr Mazari is set to savor many more occasions to laugh at the sluggish-looking conduct of the government regarding the things ‘strategic,’ therefore.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2013.