I lament that our government has blatantly exposed its incompetence in one go to seven world leaders, which is very shameful on our part, provided the government realizes it. Pakistan in general and President Zardari in particular, must be feeling proud to host and head D-8 Summit in Islamabad. Such summits are held all the time, all over the world in different countries, for one reason or the other so this may not be such a momentous situation, but seeing that Pakistan has been declared as a red zone area and very dangerous, for us to be able to host such a gathering was amazing in itself.
The present D-8 Summit was attended by heads of states and representatives from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey which earned great laurels for Pakistan. The most amazing point was that no one in Pakistan paid any attention to the timing, knowing fully that this is a time of turbulence. The entire Muslim world is observing Muharram including Pakistan and Pakistan has continuously faced violence during these holy days, so whosoever decided the dates had no idea of the Muslim calendar, or did they not take this into consideration?
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Deputy Prime Minister Chauhdry Pervaiz Elahi in general and Interior Minister Rehman Malik in particular did not think what impact this would have on the visiting dignitaries?
At this point of time when we wanted the world to perceive us as a dignified nation we have instead ruined our reputation further. The World leaders who were attending D-8 Summit in Islamabad witnessed the attack in Dhok Syedan on November 22, killing twenty one people. The worst is that President of Iran Mahmood Ahmadinejad who himself is a staunch Shia was in the country when the blast occurred at Dhok Syedan, what kind of negative message did he receive from the incident? After a long time Pakistan had the chance to earn back its lost respect but instead our heads are bowed even lower.
IQBAL HADI ZAID,
Kuwait, November 24.