ISLAMABAD: As Nawaz Sharif earns the rare distinction of becoming the prime minister for a third time, he faces a monumental challenge, among a multitude of gigantic tasks and tests, to keep his relationship with the Pakistan Army and superior judiciary trouble-free and smooth.
During his both stints as prime minister, his ties with the chiefs of army staff (COAS) hit rock bottom. His second spell was also marred by confrontation with the apex court, more precisely with Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, resulting in the despicable storming of the Supreme Court.
Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) were so much agonised and scared of COAS Aslam Beg’s campaign that they announced his replacement months before the date of his retirement, rendering him a lame-duck.
Though Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had conferred Beg with the “medal of democracy”, he always conspired to take over but did not find the environment suitable for such misadventure.
It was on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recommendation that GIK appointed Asif Nawaz Janjua as the COAS to succeed Beg with the sole aim that he would be able to rule peacefully and his ties with the army would become normal.
However, after a few months his relations with the new top commander turned extremely tense. Janjua was all set to take over but he died a natural death in early 1993.
What proverbially broke the back of the camel was the operation launched by the Pakistan army in Karachi in 1992, without consulting the prime minister, on a day when he was in Britain on an official visit. Subsequently, confrontation kept intensifying and the Nawaz Sharif government remained shaky and insecure.
As he is not known to possess the temperament to brook any interference by the COAS in areas not falling in his prescribed domain, he sacked COAS Jehangir Karamat for publicly calling for establishment of a national security council that has been a longtime dream of the Pakistan army to indirectly control the civilian government.
No doubt, other monumental challenges, crying for advisable handling at a fast track, include massive load-shedding, which has choked business apart from making lives miserable; rampant corruption; and unending target killing, extortions and bloody mayhem in Karachi.
Despite facing titanic problems, Thursday is indisputably a great day for Nawaz Sharif as he enters the prime minister’s house after 14 years, journeying from the dark dungeon, when he faced the threat of being sent to gallows.
Internews
