ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday paid a farewell visit to the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the Pakistani military said, a day ahead of the government’s expected dissolution on August 9.
The incumbent Pakistan parliament’s tenure ends on August 12, but Sharif last month announced his government would go home on August 9, which would allow a caretaker administration three-month time to hold the polls, instead of 60 days.
The Sharif government was considered close to Pakistan’s powerful army, led by General Asim Munir, as both civilian and military leaders launched multiple initiatives, including a Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and a Land Information and Management System Center of Excellence ((LIMS-CoE), to give a much-needed push to the dwindling economy amid a prolonged slowdown.
Both the government and the military leadership have also taken a unified stance against former prime minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party after his supporters attacked public property and military installations in violent protests over the ex-premier’s brief arrest in a graft case in May. Khan’s party has called it “political victimization,” but the government and the military deny this.
Upon arrival at the army’s headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday, PM Sharif was received by Gen Munir, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing. The prime minister met with principal staff officers (PSOs) and was presented a Guard of Honour, after which he laid a floral wreath on the martyrs’ monument.
“Shuhadas (martyrs) and Ghazis (triumphant fighters) are our pride and their respect and honor is binding on each Pakistani. We must never forget that the peace and freedom we enjoy today is due to the ultimate sacrifices rendered by these brave sons of soil,” Sharif said, at a ceremony organized to pay tribute to the martyrs.
“I salute their families for sacrificing their loved ones for Pakistan. It is now our earnest duty that we realize the supreme sacrifices of our Shuhadas and Ghazis into prosperity and well-being of each Pakistani.”
He said the people of Pakistan will never forget those desecrated monuments of the martyrs in the aftermath of Khan’s arrest in May, according to the ISPR.
The prime minister distributed special financial assistance cheques among families of 70 martyrs and 30 war-wounded personnel as well as laptops among the wards of martyrs pursuing education.
The farewell visit came days after the Sharif government approved results of a digital census in the country, which force the country’s election regulator to delimit new electoral constituencies as per the new count, a process that can take up to six months and would mean polling day is pushed back by months.
With only a day left in the dissolution of parliament, both the leader of the opposition and the prime minister have yet to finalize a name for the caretaker prime minister. Constitutionally, a caretaker prime minister is appointed by the president after the PM and the opposition leader finalize a name for the slot.
With Khan behind bars and the government just a day away from the end of its term, uncertainty prevails in the South Asian country as to how the day-to-day state business will be managed in the absence of an elected government.