Prime minister has taunted Mian Nawaz Sharif for not having completed his terms in office. The PM needs to be reminded that it was his party leader Benazir Bhutto who was responsible for this. The first time, having goaded Nawaz Sharif into taking a public stand against the president's power to dismiss governments she ditched him and joined hands with the ‘Go Baba Go’ president. She was flown in an army helicopter to meet the army chief to chalk out the plan that she would go for a long march and Kakar would decline to use the army, citing excessive casualties, creating a serious law and order situation giving the president an excuse to demand the resignation of the prime minister. She promised to nominate Ghulam Ishaque Khan to continue as president, also promised an extension in service to Abdul Waheed kakar.
The second time, she brought immense public pressure on prime minister Nawaz Sharif to respond in kind to India’s nuclear tests knowing full well what effect the resulting sanctions would have on Pakistan’s economy. Her statement to CNN, ’The people are euphoric but they don’t realise the economic repercussions’ is a case in point. At the same time, she tried to curry favour with Washington by saying she would have gone for a cold laboratory test despite her many statements in the press demanding the government to go tit-for-tat against India. She even gave an ultimatum to Nawaz Sahrif setting a date when he would be pulled off his chair. The resulting sanctions very badly dented the economy giving Musharraf an excuse to ask for an in-house change of prime minister. The rest is history which the PM appears to have forgotten most conveniently.
KHURSHID ANWER,
Lahore, March 25.