If talks between India and Pakistan take place, “they are now likely to have a very different tone and tenor” due to the appointment of a retired army general as Pakistan’s NSA, a leading daily said on Monday. An editorial “NSA appointment” in the influential daily Dawn said that in the appointment of recently retired army general Nasser Khan Janjua as the country’s new national security adviser are two stories. “The first story is the military’s attempt to wrest away seemingly any space from the civilian government in the national security and foreign policy domains. In capturing the NSA slot, there are several advantages to the military.” The appointment of the retired general to this key post is in large part down to overload on the shoulders of Sartaj Aziz, who along with the security portfolio was holding the post of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs — there being no foreign minister as the prime minister decided to hold this portfolio himself. The National Security Committee has met just four times since the PML-N was elected in 2013 and the last meeting was over a year ago. For a country such as Pakistan, with numerous concerns on the foreign policy front, to function at its best without a foreign minister is nigh impossible. For the prime minister to refuse to make an appointment to the post leaves a yawning gulf in governance that the military was able to see and presumably decide that enough was enough. There have been foreign policy missteps of late — the serial misunderstandings that surrounded the meeting between the prime minister and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Ufa agreement that was no agreement at all; as well as a clumsy handling of relations with Afghanistan all suggest that foreign policy is not the prime minister’s forte. The ceding of space to the military in governance matters comes in the wake of the failure of civilian politicians to effectively create a narrative that counters terrorism, and is highly selective about which organisations or individuals appear to enjoy an unspoken immunity. With governance in the hands of the B Team, small wonder that the A Team takes the fore.
pk.shafaqna.com
