Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has never been known for delegating responsibility. Nevertheless, his reluctance to appoint a full-time foreign minister is most intriguing. Few other countries have more serious foreign policy challenges than Pakistan, and the absence of an effective minister to take charge of the portfolio concerned has compounded our problems. Surely we have an adviser to the prime minister and a special assistant for foreign affairs. But neither seems to be really in charge. Brother Shahbaz Sharif, too, dabbles in external affairs frequently accompanying the prime minister on foreign trips.When Mr Aziz was appointed adviser on foreign affairs it was generally believed he would be made minister after the Senate elections. But strangely, he was not even given a party ticket. Mr Aziz, before becoming foreign minister in the second Sharif government, had served as finance minister. In this term, he is also holding the position of adviser on national security which itself needs a full-time minister.For one, the international diplomatic network is built around foreign ministries led by foreign ministers — there are protocol and coordination elements that simply cannot be well executed by ad hoc appointments.For another, the Foreign Office structure inside Pakistan is hierarchical and designed to be led by a foreign minister who coordinates with the Prime Minister’s Office.The flow of information, the interaction between the bureaucratic layers and political leadership, the drumming up of ideas and exchange of points of view — all of that and more are interrupted when there is no full-time foreign minister. And all of that adds up to harming the country’s diplomacy and interactions with the outside world.Ultimately, it appears that Mr Sharif’s instinct to not trust anyone beyond the smallest circle of aides and then to have ministries staffed with multiple principals who are loyal to the prime minister but at odds with their intra-ministerial counterparts is undoing many of the government’s policy initiatives.All countries of the world have full-time foreign ministers, but Pakistan stands isolated with all its pending issues and no support from the international community and Muslim states.
pk.shafaqna.com
