Most of my younger colleagues are yet not able to fathom, deeply, that a sinister cabal of hostile countries and forces has launched the fifth generation war on Pakistan. Promoting chaos-stirring fake news in the name of furnishing information, works like the most lethal weapon for this version of the war. Our government thus needs to stay extra vigilant, rather preemptive, on this front.
In the hall of the National Assembly 70-plus members of both the houses of our parliament, representing both the ruling and opposition parties, were invited to a comprehensive briefing on some highly sensitive aspects of national security affairs. The event was expected to start at 11:30am Monday.
Keeping the manner of holding of such briefings in the past, a huge crowd of parliamentary reporters took it for granted that only the access to National Assembly hall would be blocked to them Monday morning.
After entering the Parliament House, they would still be allowed to watch public representative and senior most military and security officials walking to the cordoned off hall.
Some political leaders would perhaps also be willing to express words, furnishing attention-grabbing sound bytes while walking to the briefing hall. Some words from the Army Chief might have made a big story as well.
But a huge crowd of parliamentary reporters felt extremely disappointed to realise that they were even not allowed to move beyond the main gate of parliament house. Staying put on the road, they felt like abandoned children of powerless plebeians and in utter frustration eventually attempted to convert themselves into a protesting picket. To my cynical mind it looked like a laughable waste of time and energy.
Meanwhile, the briefing inside went on and on. Thanks to its length, the Senate could not start its meeting, as scheduled, at 4:30pm. The National Assembly was to meet at 6:00pm and I didn’t expect it to meet on time as well and later maintain the quorum. The exhaustive briefing must have tired out many of our parliamentarians.
Once upon a time, journalism used to be sort of a ‘mission’. Its main obsession was to zealously search for stories, ruling elites arrogantly wanted to hide from their subjects. Gradually, though, media turned into an industry like the rest of only-for-profit businesses. It started ferociously representing multiple and fiercely competing vested interests of the ruling elites.
Little wonder, people all over the world have stopped trusting the regular and once credible media. We are rather considered to be living in post-journalism world these days. The growth of social media has also furnished “citizen journalists.” Reporter is a distinct profession no more, requiring definite skills and sweat-inducing leg work.
After wasting my whole life in looking for newsworthy stories and developing the skill of telling them, I was surely able to cultivate credible sources. Even after practically retiring from active journalism, I could have reached some parliamentarians to find out what was told to them during the in camera briefing of Monday. But I didn’t feel motivated, simply for being confused.
The manner access to parliament house was completely denied to reporters by the government forced me to imagine that revealing “sensitive things,” possibly discussed at Monday briefing, could be taken as breaching the “national security.” And I am a risk-averse born coward.
Still, relying on my accumulated experience I can safely presume that recent developments in Afghanistan might have been the dominating theme of Monday briefing. And my hunch proved correct when the National Assembly Secretariat released its version of the briefing Monday evening.
There has indeed been a spate of calculated leaks for the past many weeks, originally initiated by the President and the Prime Minister through various TV interviews. They prepared us for peace talks with the groups that pretend being the Pakistani version of Taliban.
Since the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan, such groups were held responsible for relentless incidents of terrorist activities in Pakistan. That eventually called for mass scale military operations against them. To elude the same, many of them had shifted to Afghanistan. We were often given to believe that India was also using some of them for creating havoc in Pakistan and the Afghan governments, propped up by the US and its allies, continued acting deaf and blind to them.
Since August 15, 2021, however, Taliban have returned to Kabul like unbeatable victors and they are presumed genuinely friendly to Pakistan. They constantly vow not to let the Afghan soil used for destabilising their neighboring countries, especially Pakistan. Our government thus found a window of opportunity to negotiate with people, once considered responsible for the waves of terrorist acts in our land.
One is not sure how the opposition parliamentarians took the initiatives for engaging those groups. One thing seemed extremely odd, though: Prime Minister Imran Khan preferred not to attend such a high profile briefing, while Shehbaz Sharif, the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly and the youthful Chairman of Pakistan Peoples’ Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, were eagerly present there.
When the Senate finally started the sitting at 6:00pm Rana Maqbool of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) politely tried to agitate about his absence from the briefing through a point of order. But senators representing Pakistan Peoples’ Party felt more disturbed regarding the crippling waves of inflation in the country. The Senate Chairman was just not willing to give the floor to them. They walked out to protest and the house had to be adjourned for the lack of quorum.
Returning to home, I kept wondering at the naivety of Rana Maqbool. Questioning Prime Minister Imran Khan’s absence from Monday briefing, he conveniently forgot that since assuming power in October 2018, he had never attended such meetings. Like it or not, Imran Khan strongly believes that our opposition parties are crowed with “looters and plunderers.” They don’t deserve to be even taken as “honorable parliamentarians.” He hates to share space with “core to the corrupt” likes of Shehbaz Sharif, even if the same is set for discussing serious and sensitive matters of national security.
We had a clearly stated law. It demanded that the Prime Minister should hold “meaningful consultation” with the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, when it comes to the appointment of the Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Justice (retired.) Javed Iqbal, the incumbent Chairman had completed his term two months ago. But Imran Khan refused to consult Shehbaz Sharif to find his replacement. Through a Presidential Ordinance he rather preferred to change the consultation-enforcing law. Now the President is supposed to do such consultation, which Prime Minister Imran Khan considers far below his moral high ground. And Javed Iqbal keeps enjoying an office, equipped with fear-implanting powers.
If Shehbaz Sharif doesn’t feel so upset with relentless snubs by Imran Khan, why Rana Maqbool types should agitate about it to prove loyalty to their leaders?