Lieutenant generals Azhar Abbas and Sahir Shamshad Mirza may be chief contenders for the COAS slot, journalist Aijaz Ahmad said on Tuesday.
Ahmad made the comments in flagship Naya Daur TV show Khabar Say Aagay. Ahmad said he had noted how the two had been treated with great deference at a recent diplomatic event. This, he said, may indicate how the two are being considered as chief contenders for the army top slot.
Ahmad said he was the first to name Qamar Javed Bajwa as a prime candidate for the post earlier. His name was then nowhere to be seen, Ahmad said. Ashfaq Nadeem, at that time however, was being regularly cited by everybody else.
Journalist Aniq Naji said how could a government that had failed to appoint governors across provinces be expected to take bold decisions and challenge Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan’s narrative. He said when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had commenced a probe into real estate mogul Malik’s Riaz’s settlement with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had threatened to quit the governing coalition in response.
Flagship Naya Daur TV show Khabar Say Aagay streams Monday to Saturday at 9pm.
Success of false narrative is due to artfulness of Imran Khan, bad communication from conservative democratic elements including media and poor performance by state officials. Effective communication needs to be clear and timely. Facts are:
Fact 1: Army had been mulling over taking a step back from political engineering due to spectacular failure of the hybrid regime paradigm since last year and in February decided to go ‘apolitical’.
Fact 2: This led to the collapse of the coalition ensembled together under previous paradigm and success of the VONC.
Fact 3: Cablegate narrative was cobbled up by Imran Khan for his political survival and it was likely to result in a blow back towards military. As who can conspire without military help in Pakistan if US interference is alleged.
Ineffective communication of first 2 facts has led to the success of cablegate as it stands on a peripheral event whence a US diplomat in April commented on the ground situation and US unhappiness with an outgoing regime and the impact the success of VONC will have, as is the norm in diplomacy.
We can all hear how IK, SMK and others are cooking it up. Opportunism is a specialty of Imran Khan’s Pinocchioism par excellence. But in a war of words truth needs to propagate itself effectively and in a timely manner.
The Fact 1 above is an event unheard of in our 75 years of military control and perhaps a degree of skepticism stops the democrats in the media to welcome and propagate it. It’s confused also with reaction to attack on military that has to be responded otherwise there would be bloodshed and revolt. No democratic country would ever tolerate badmouthing its military. Neither UK Mir US. We ought to cherish, promote and welcome this monumental decision and help our institution to go back to its barracks without any bloodshed and refrain from promoting controversies that can harm this historic decision.