Repair work is swiftly underway behind the scenes and in public to mend the strained nexus between the military establishment and federal government in Islamabad. Both have been working in quite a remarkable relationship for sometime and contrary to some of anchors’ claim, there is no bad blood between two but few rifts and scuffles. Actually there is only one contentious issue between Nawaz Sharif and Raheel Sharif which has brought ISPR statement out. Military wants to get MQM and PPP in Karachi as it believes they are the root cause of all ills in the Karachi. Federal government wants to go slow and steady and don’t want PPP and MQM to resign from the assembly. Problem with military is that they are stuck in Karachi because of non-cooperation from Sindh government of PPP and hesitation of PML-N from Islamabad. Problem with PMLN is Imran Khan. They are apprehensive and anxious that if they side with military too much against MQM and PPP, and if both parties resign from national assembly then there would be little left to carry on current regime in parliament.
PMLN are still bruised and battered from last year’s sit-in of Imran Khan backed and managed by military establishment. At that time, PPP supported them in parliament. If PMLN starts taking action against PPP and MQM and they resign from assemblies and what if Imran and Qadri get another signal from establishment to once again start creating chaos? In that case, PMLN would be alone to face the music. That is why there was exchange of somewhat uneasy statements between Pindi and Islamabad. Khawaja Asif’s statement to defend and justify army chief’s visit to US is a welcome one and should go some way to cool things down. Both Pindi and Islamabad should sit and devise a middle way to take on criminal elements in Karachi. They must understand ground realities, remain transparent and try to build trust relationship. And these media anchors like Kashif Abbasi and Nadeem Malik should be given shut up call who desperately want government-military war.