EDITORIAL: Calling a spade a spade, President Arif Alvi spoke on a host of controversial national issues with rare candour at a function in Karachi to mark the Quaid’s 146th birth anniversary. He didn’t mince words, nor did he care whether or not what he said would sit well with his party high command. He said whatever he thought should be said now when the challenges confronting the nation brook no reservations. In one word, he asked the political power contenders on both sides of the political divide to forgive and forget the past and move forward. “Let’s make a country that we deserve,” he said.
In his wide-ranging conversation with journalists, businessmen and diplomats, he touched upon many subjects, particularly of inquisitive public interest like the role of institutions in national politics, electoral scenario, audio-video leaks and growing polarisation. Then, he also talked about where did the institutions stand, but warned that degrading them would undermine their proficiency and performance. He also asked why judiciary allowed a dictator to amend the constitution and in the Reko Diq case it exposed Pakistan to a penalty of 7 billion dollars. Then he focused on the performance of the men in uniform, particularly on the role of retired Army Chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa (retd). Asked why and when did relations between Imran Khan and Bajwa soured, the President replied “probably” in October last year and then in April and May this year. And then, came his disclosure that General Bajwa and his team had “helped Khan in the Senate as well as during elections. I am aware of that”. The president expressed his deep concern and anguish over the release of audios and videos, revealing private conservations of political leaders. He also expressed doubt if elections would be held in March or April, saying ‘Imran should be worried whether elections would be held in October next year’. And moving a step further towards establishing his neutrality in the ongoing political imbroglio, he praised Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for, among other things, describing the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “the Butcher of Gujarat”.
President Arif Alvi’s candid talk about national affairs must have come as surprise to those who would always describe him ‘a PTI worker first and then the President of Pakistan’. They would call his office “an Ordinance-manufacturing factory,” and perhaps they were not totally mistaken in their perception. But times have changed – the country today is confronted with existential threats. The threat of default looms over the horizon; the rupee is slipping fast and the much sought after and needed dollar is proving elusive; the fiscal and other deficits continue to defy the government’s control and the foreign investment finds Pakistan a prohibiting land. As if these economic challenges were not enough for the president to tell the whole truth - the grim security challenges lurk on the borders and have raised their ugly heads inside the country as well. That the economic perils and security threats stand in the way of Pakistan is a fact. The country is, therefore, finding it extremely difficult to fully exploit its inherent potential in terms of hardy manpower, the lay of the fertile land and its strategic location. The question is who could be more responsive to these challenges and opportunities than the President of Pakistan? What he said in Karachi needs to be repeated at many more platforms, which one hopes he would do in coming days and weeks.
Although, and perhaps as an after- thought, the presidency has disputed the reportage of the president’s talk the media insists that there was no misreporting or out-of-context reporting as alleged. The veracity of the report, the media claims, is backed by the audio recording, so to speak.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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