Pakistan: Punjab sackings

CLEARLY, demonstrating a little bit of efficiency in the Model Town affair in Lahore could have saved the Punjab government a lot of trouble. The intervention from the top for which the province is famous was missing for long hours as the situation outside the Minhajul Quran secretariat on Tuesday deteriorated gradually. If that delay defied logic, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had been rather slow in giving marching orders to two of his senior associates in government. The step that he has now resorted to could have been taken immediately after the firing incident outside the Minhajul Quran office. The delay allowed doubts and accusations to creep in and the opposition demands got louder with time.

The Punjab government chose to answer statement with statement, announcing a judicial commission but inexplicably putting off the administrative action it has now taken. The chief minister needed to appear a little more humble in the wake of the Model Town tragedy and, given his reputation for quick responses, to be prompt in his administrative action in aid of a fair inquiry. By procrastinating he exposed himself to criticism that all this time he had been looking for suitable scapegoats.

The law minister Rana Sanaullah was one of the two top officials to be removed. The other is Tauqeer Shah, who was working as the chief minister’s principal secretary. There is a contrast between the two men, both considered very close to the chief minister: Mr Sanaullah has been a loud-talking minister giving the impression that offence is the best defence policy. Dr Shah, in comparison, has been known as a chief ministerial aide who has preferred to do his assignments quietly. His sacking over a police raid at as sensitive a place as the headquarters of Dr Tahirul Qadri at a crucial moment will feed the legend that casts him as a man authorised to take important decisions by a chief executive who is not known to share power easily. His forced ouster will be construed as some kind of a loss for Shahbaz Sharif.

On the other hand, the outgoing law minister generated a lot of heat and acrimony as he went about publicly responding to whatever challenges the Punjab government was faced with. There had been calls for the PML-N leadership to rein him in. All his critics will now feel vindicated, and both administratively and politically, the PML-N must review its aggressive approach to issues. Dr Qadri and some others have rejected the sackings as insufficient and are demanding the chief minister’s resignation. This is their argument: Rana Sanaullah couldn’t have been acting without orders from above. An effort is now on to delink Mr Shahbaz Sharif from the gory Model Town incident by disconnecting him from his two associates. Their removal apart, this will require some doing.Gia eos volorehenit