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| India-Pakistan |
| Chief's 'refusal' seen as PML-N's failure |
| 2016-01-28 |
| [DAWN] ONE would think that Army Chief General Raheel Sharif ..Pak chief of army staff, meaning he pulls the strings on the Nawaz Sharif puppet to make it dance and sing and not do much at all.... 's unequivocal statement, saying he is not interested in an extension, would have calmed frayed nerves in the PML-N camp, but not so. In background discussions with Dawn, several ruling party insiders have expressed shock over what they see as the government allowing the military to tip the already-delicate balance of power in their favour, without putting up much of a fight. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's term in office has been punctuated with tensions between the civilian and military leadership over issues such as membership of the military coalition against Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and implementation of the much-touted National Action Plan. Commenting on the status of civil-military relations, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Dawn, "I don't buy the argument that the civilian and military leadership are on one page." Senior PML-N leaders told Dawn that the chief's statement was a reaction to media reports attributed to federal ministers, claiming that the government wanted to offer Gen Sharif more time in office. The justification presented for these claims was that the government wanted the general to see the NAP through to its conclusion, since the two institutions had gelled well in the ongoing fight against terrorism. A news story, attributed to close aides of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had claimed that three senior members of the ruling party were in contact with GHQ in a bid to persuade the COAS to accept the extension in his term because the government wanted to ensure continuity of the anti-terrorism policy spearheaded by Gen Sharif. |
| Posted by:Fred |