Army chief General Syed Asim Munir in a meeting with Pakistani businessmen is reported to have said that none of the political parties were sincere to the country. One of Pakistan’s top businessmen Zubair Motiwala revealed this in an interview with Nadeem Malik on Monday evening.
Discussing the impact such a statement could have on our perennially unstable democracy, writer and policy development adviser Mosharraf Zaidi said that what the army chief had said was nothing new but it was inappropriate and unnecessary for the head of an institution express such opinions about the heads of other institutions.
In discussion with Raza Rumi on Naya Daur TV’s flagship programme Khabar Say Aagay (Beyond the Headlines), Mosharraf Zaidi said that army chief is like an elder in the house and there’s no way we’d be able to move forward unless the army chief and his associates in Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) take the right decisions.
Speaking on the show, analyst Nadia Naqi said that the army chief’s statement could mean a long delay in the elections. “There will be accountability for all. The decision has been taken that corrupt elements in all the political parties will be brought to the book. It appears that after sending Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan to the jail, the army chief has now adopted his talking points to further his agenda,” Nadia said.
Fauzia Yazdani believed that it was high time the army and its chiefs stopped blaming everything on politicians and the political parties. “The army keeps telling us that it is the solution for all our problems. Nobody is ready to buy this narrative now. I think the gloves are off now. Army should stop feigning neutrality and come sit on the table as a stakeholder,” she added.
The host Raza Rumi said the army had no business fixing the economy. It’s not the role the constitution defines for them, he said. “Pakistan’s economy, politics and the society have been destroyed by the political engineering by the army during the last 10 years. If they really want to help, they need to go back to their barracks,” Rumi added.
Raza Rumi hosts Beyond the Headlines Monday to Saturday 9 PM on Naya Daur TV.