The Same Page Syndrome

The long built narrative of the current regime regarding exceptional and extraordinary civil-military relationships has fallen upside down and it has become the top story for media all over. It has again made a strong impression of unprofessionalism and incompetence of the prime minister’s office on mismanagement of key appointments of the armed forces.

The matter started when the notification of appointments/ transfer/ posting of the armed forces which is a routine exercise was mismanaged by the government and sources tell that it was on purpose as the prime minister was not in favour of the name given for the post of director-general ISI as he wanted to continue the former DG (ISI) Lt. General Faiz Hameed for at least six months more but the military leadership has other ideas and one of the senior members of governing party Amir Dogar stated that prime minister was not in favour of the change in the chain of command and both offices were not on the same page while other important ministers including information minister Ch Fawad Hussain, Minister for railways Sh Rasheed Ahmed, minister for science & technology Shibli Faraz have been giving statements of everything will be under control as they still didn’t give any date for the release of notification regarding the important appointments.

According to all the government officials, it is still ambiguous but the military regime has quite clearly given the name of Lt. General Nadeem Anjum as new DG(ISI) and most likely the notification will be released with the said name anyhow the issue has led to another disappointing to Pakistan and most importantly to the government and had also damaged the reputation of armed forces. It had not happened for the first time as the extension for general Bajwa as chief of the army staff became quite eventful in the past and the matter was also mishandled by the government then up to the extent when it was referred to the court of law. The notification is getting delayed intentionally because the failed, incompetent government want some face-saving in the issue

The government has made countless changes, shuffling and reshuffling not in the cabinet but also on the administrative positions and key appointments of important departments as 10-12 Chief secretaries of different ministries, 6-7 IG police in Punjab and many RPO, DPO and countless other officers have been changed and still, the performance of the government is zero.

All the political analysts, anchorpersons and journalists are criticising the government for such a non-professional attitude towards important issues senior journalist and anchorperson Salim Safi has said that the prime minister seems to be blackmailing the military leadership, however, the ideal civil-military relationship is shattered and it doesn’t seem to be on the same page.