Observer Report Islamabad
Taking the government to task over the uncertainty sparked by the delay in the appointment of the new Inter-Services Intelligence chief, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said the two-week-long “drama” concerning the country’s defence institution had become a “joke” in front of the world.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad, Iqbal said: “Today the whole administrative machine of Pakistan has been rendered dysfunctional.
The one remaining [effective] institution of ours — the defence institution (Pakistan Army) — the drama that has been made of it for the past two weeks is a joke in front of the world.”
“Sometimes the prime minister threatens that the [military] commander can be removed like [famous Muslim military commander] Khalid bin Waleed and sometimes he says the promotion of army commanders in Riyasat-i-Madina was on the basis of merit — which is perhaps not happening today on merit which is stinging him,” he said.
The PML-N leader quoted TV anchors as saying that defence appointments were being decided on a superstitious basis such as “according to the moon” or days that were not “unlucky”.
“This is the drama happening in Pakistan,” he remarked, adding that the country was an atomic power and yet “the world is looking at us and laughing.”
