Recent Happenings: Politics, Diplomacy, Battling Covid and Terror Menace in Pakistan

Amidst ups and downs, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan showed his magnanimity and expressed his solidarity with India in combating the monumental Corona problems. An in-depth analysis by Shantanu, exclusively for Different Truths.

There is never a dull moment in Pakistan. Politics, diplomacy, battling COVID and terror menace at the same time, salvaging a collapsing economy, internal challenges from political adversaries, etc., continue to occupy Pakistani leadership without giving any breather to any arm of the military or to the civil administration. However, amid these ups and downs, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (PMIK), showing his humane facet and magnanimity, expressed his solidarity with India in the latter’s efforts to combat the monumental Corona problems with the death toll rising at alarming proportions. His gesture didn’t go unheeded, and it won appreciation by one and all describing it as a humanitarian. This was soon followed by another statement by the otherwise anti-India, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Pakistan Foreign Minister. Qureshi called for sinking all the differences between the two countries and unitedly fight the pandemic. This too was a large-hearted gesture.

Significantly, such moves were preceded by the telephone call made by US President Joe Biden to Prime Minister Modi and US NSA, Jack Sullivan telephoning his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval assuring all possible help to tide over the ongoing crisis. The US not only avowed to make raw material available for the manufacture of COVID vaccines in India but also pledged support to provide health-related equipment, protective kits, and other allied materials. Similar assurances have come from the US Secretary Defence Lloyd, who has already directed his defence department to transport a maximum number of health-linked equipment to India to overcome the prevailing challenges.

Pakistan’s offer to help or at least an expression of solidarity with India could not have been timelier. Even critics of PMIK, within Pakistan, have praised such gestures terming them as genuine and humanitarian. Several academics and cricketers in Pakistan have also appropriated space in social media in supporting India when it is battling to save enormous lives from the threat of Corona. This is seen by watchers of India and Pakistan as a healthy development and an opportunity to reinforce bonhomie which has unfortunately taken a battering in the last so many years due to Pakistan’s rigid stand in Kashmir and support to cross-border terrorism adversely affecting the bilateral relations.

On its part, Pakistan is grappling with several problems related to its civil service arm afflicted with professional incompetence and 22 service officers are likely to be axed in the near foreseeable future. A list of such officers had recently been drawn up by the Chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) and is expected to be submitted to PMIK for his final endorsement. These shortlisted officers include personnel from the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS), Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), and others from the Secretarial and Subordinates service groups.

Meanwhile in another related development, in a recent swift and bold move by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, six members of the Pakistan Foreign Service including diplomats posted in the country’s diplomatic mission in the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh, have been recalled to the headquarters in Islamabad for a slew of discrepancies noticed by the foreign ministry on a few specific dereliction charges. These charges, inter alia, include inefficiency in providing service to the overseas Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia, lack of any accountability for the failed staff who fell short of expectations in catering to consular and passport services to the expatriates, abject failure on part of the Mission staff to ensure community welfare and other crucial issues. Such incompetence became more visible and tarnished the image of Pakistan in Saudi Arabia. Here, it is perhaps pertinent to point out that Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia have been at an all-time low in the last year and any loss of image in the Saudi Kingdom is watched intently. According to statistics available with the Pakistan Bureau of Emigration and Overseas employment for the preceding year, 87% of Pakistanis looking for jobs overseas went to Saudi Arabia and the UAE and from July 2020 to March 2021, the remittances to Pakistan from these countries amounted to nearly 5.7 billion US dollars. This is no mean amount as it generates a huge quantum of revenue. Hence any laxity in the working of a diplomatic mission in Riyadh cannot be tolerated or taken lightly. The entire episode of recall of six personnel from the Pakistani Embassy is being dealt with by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and overseen personally by PMIK who has ordered a high-level inquiry into the lapses and wants the findings to be submitted within 15 days.

In the meantime, Pakistani Ambassador to Riyadh, Lt Gen (Retd.) Bilal Akbar is believed to have presented his credentials to the Saudi Protocol department on April 29. The appointment of a freshly retired army general as an Ambassador to Saudi Arabia shows the significance that Pakistan attaches to the Saudi Kingdom which is seen closer to India than Pakistan for a variety of reasons. Gen (Retd) Akbar has an illustrious military career behind him. He was Corps Commander of Rawalpindi and GOC of Lahore Division, trained in Turkey, and held very important charges. He was also the Colonel Commandant of Mujahid Regiment Force and saw action in Afghanistan in 200. Further, PMIK is thought to be planning a trip to Saudi Arabia soon to normalise relations and iron out creases existing between the two countries.

Whatever the domestic challenges Pakistan is saddled with, its reach to India expressing solidarity, is indeed a shining initiative and PMIK and Chief of the Army Staff, Gen Qamar Ahmad Bajwa should not succumb to the anti-India lobby in the Cantonment. Members of this lobby are always trying to thwart and pre-empt any peace initiative or backchannel diplomacy raising hopes of a thaw or in efforts in bringing in much needed tranquillity in the bilateral ties between India and Pakistan.

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