Political, military leadership on same page

KARACHI: In the beginning of his programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath’ on Wednesday, anchor Shahzeb Khanzada said that the whole nation was united against the menace of terrorism while the political and military leadership was also taking decisions jointly at such a very sensitive juncture.
He said that there was visible co-ordination between the two leaderships whether it was the matter of relations with India and the US or war against Taliban.Shahzeb recounted that Islamabad was recently the target of terrorists when an attack near an Imambargah left three people dead. Earlier, the terrorists had attacked in Shikarpur, Peshawar and Lahore. He said the attack near Islamabad was the third in the last 20 days. He pointed out that operation against the terrorists was going on but still the terrorists were attacking successfully.
Khanzada said Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, while presiding over the recent meeting of the Apex Committee noted that all provinces were not at par in following the National Action Plan (NAP).
Khanzada said the prime minister should see to it where the weakness lay. Though significant measures had been taken in Punjab but reduction in terrorist attacks would show the end result.Khanzada also pointed out that the PML-N was often criticised as whenever it came to rule, it adopted non-democratic attitude and there was concentration of power.
There had been objection on Nawaz Sharif during the last 18 months of his rule that all powers were centred in his person. This was also pointed out in a report of Pildat, which said there was decline in the democratic norms during the last one and a half years. The report pointed out that the factors adversely inflicting democracy were the sit-ins of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek. The inability of the government in tackling the situation created by them was another factor. In such a situation, Nawaz Sharif would have to take bold steps and

lead from the front.
Continuing his analysis Khanzada referred to the Pakistani trawler, which was destroyed in the Indian water. The Indians blamed the incident as terrorism attempt by Pakistan. They alleged that the one hundred men on board, not only destroyed it after it was chased by the Indians but also died as the boat sank.
Interestingly, Deputy Inspector General of Indian Coastguards BBK Loshali negated the Indian stand. He claimed that the Indian Coastguards had destroyed the trawler on his orders.Senior analyst Ansar Abbasi said the political and military leadership jointly formulated the NAP to fight terrorism. He pointed out that Army chief and the DG ISI always accompanied the prime minister wherever he visited in the country in connection with implementation of the NAP. It was apprehended earlier that such participation of military establishment was aimed at destabilising the government, but circumstances laid the fact bare and now there was no such misunderstanding. There was now satisfaction and positive notion in the government circles. The political and military relations were improving.
Pildat Joint Director Aasia Riaz said according to its report the standard of democracy declined during the last 18 months and had fallen to the level of Pervez Musharraf’s tenure, where there was no democratic government. She said it would be very difficult to move ahead if there was no strong democratic government. The responsibility of weakness of democratic government lay solely with the elected public representatives and the elected government, she pointed out. She said there was visible increase of influence of the army in political and national affairs. She said a message for such influence was forwarded when democratic governments summoned all parties’ conferences instead of taking issues to the elected Parliament. Such steps conveyed the message that the elected representatives were incapable of taking decisions.
Talking to Khanzada from India, the Strategic Editor Praven Swami said the government of India was responsible for the wrong statement on terrorists’ trawler. The Ministry of Defence had stated that terrorists were on board and they destroyed it themselves assessing they were under threat, while Deputy DIG of Indian Coastguard, Loshali admitted that the boat was destroyed on his orders.
In case the ministry considered Loshali was not speaking the truth, he should be sacked and inquiry should be initiated against him. Maybe the coastguards had not given actual information or the minister was not speaking the truth to the people.
Even if there were terrorists on board in the boat, there was no need to kill the one hundred men.Former foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri pointed out that Narendra Modi must have realised now that he could make no headway for his agenda of progress without initiating dialogue with Pakistan.