**It’s here. The summary with recommendations of names for the slot of army chief has arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office. One political commentator, now a special aide to the premier on public policy and strategic communication, mixed sports metaphors while talking about the ‘delivery’ of the summary resulting in PTI’s defeat in the first round.
This commentator is Fahd Husain, a respected editor, columnist and talk show host, who surprised everyone with his decision to join the PML-N government as a special aide earlier this year.
“PTI should learn from this first round. This is a good opportunity. Thank God, the wise people of the party have broken their silence. PTI is an important political party and there are competent people in it. Alas, the party took its eyes off the ball and got bowled. They can play well in next innings,” he tweeted a few hours back.
This came a day after another round of tweets and appearances on talk shows in which he talked about Imran changing his tune on key issues including his decision not to follow up any longer on his foreign-sponsored regime change conspiracy.
He mentioned that the army chief’s appointment would take place as scheduled while Imran’s demand for snap elections was also fizzling out. “The ‘crisis’ politics of the last seven months will now normalize and all parties would be forced to acknowledge that elections would take place as scheduled.”
Since Imran’s ouster as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in April this year, the country has gone from one crisis to another. The rupee was in free fall, there were unprecedented rains and floods, bursts of nationwide protests along with daily public gatherings due to the standoff between Imran Khan and the government with questions over the neutrality of the armed forces, militancy in the north, along with soaring inflation, talk of soverign default and poor economic indicators. Then there are the arrests and alleged custodial torture of politicians, the assassination attempt on Imran and a flurry of ‘leaked’ videos that raised questions without providing any answers.
One of the biggest issues was the issue of the army chief, with incumbent General Qamar Javed Bajwa set to pass the baton on November 29. This is the defeat in the first round that Husain was alluding to in his tweet.
Fahd opined that the PTI is incapable of running a country.“ After this defeat, the PTI should focus on policy making.“
He also suggested that Imran dial down on his criticism of the Establishment. In his speeches, Imran named army officers while accusing them of involved in political engineering and custodial torture.
“It’s better to take a desired u-turn and extend the hand of friendship. There is a chance for repentance if one acknowledges their mistake.”
