Then no different than PTI/Bajwa same-page story, right? Is it my or your fault that the idiots in the PTI and PDM governments end up giving a BPS-22 officer carte blanche to run the country's foreign policy? I have said it before, don't cede this space and then cry afterwards that "establishment" gets involved in politics. We have a penchant for not learning from our mistakes.
Oh I agree with you on this...the fault lies on both sides. Perhaps even equally.
But question is why and how did that BPS-22 officer start having that carte blanche? If the BPS-22 officer is the one who gave rise to these parties, then wouldn't they be beholden to him at some point in time?
And if the civilian government disagrees with the BPS-22 officer, he can quite simply dismiss the government. Before it used to happen overtly, but of late the modus operandi has changed to operate behind the scenes.
Imran Khan disagreed with the estab on many things, and see what happened. Why was the COAS sending representatives to meet NS? Why was a deal being negotiated? Agr BPS-22 officer itna asool pasand tha, he should have declined to meet, no?
There are also quite a few sources, and now even IK himself who say that the NS reports were forged and the estab knew about it, but I won't comment on that unless I can verify this. But what I can verify is that the estab was meeting multiple political parties and players (including the current opposition chairman) and imploring upon them to do what is 'right'
Siasatdaan to hain hi ghatiya, but you can't absolve the BPS-22 officer.
If anything, it is the establishment with its military diplomacy that has paved the path for the last two governments to get fiscal space through financial support from foreign countries and IMIs. This is not the job of the establishment at all (one that I am absolutely against and utterly embarrassed by) yet both PTI and current PDM government have relied on it. Where were their finanial wizards and diplomats to handle these delicate issues with foreign countries? Phir rotay hain BPS-22 officer kay baray mein.
Why does then the military effectively run the foreign policy of the country since the past many decades? The foreign minister is just the face of the country, the policy itself comes from elsewhere. Is cooperation or military input bad? Heck no. But it should be civilian led.
This was yet another sticking point of the estab and IK, one which Mr QBJ has himself admitted to in the talk at LUMS and at Lahore garrison (the latter being in more clear words).
To move ahead of the blame game between PTI and QBJ and the recent occurences, I would say that the real rot started to happen during Musharraf. If I started to count down the number of civilian organizations and institutions that started to have a member of the military sit in them (who had no business being there), the night would become short.
There is no need for a military officer to be on deputation on organizations such as CAA, PIA, PTV, KPT, and much more. Musharraf really blurred the lines between civilian and military roles and that effect has snowballed into what we see today. Aik bar phir taqat ajaye to phir chorna mushkil hota hai.