Pakistan’s current situation under the newly-formed government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is “disturbing and worrying”, former Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has said, predicting that the incumbent coalition would be the “shortest one” in the country’s history.
Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has only 86 seats in the 342-member National Assembly and the rest of the numerical support has come from the coalition partners who apparently have nothing in common except their rivalry for ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan, and it will be a big challenge for him to keep them calm and satisfied.
Mr. Rashid took to social media to predict that Mr. Khan’s call for the Islamabad march will surprise the world.
“The incumbent government will be the shortest one in Pakistan’s history,” he said.
Mr. Rashid termed Pakistan’s current situation as “disturbing and worrying” after the removal of Mr. Khan’s Government.
“Those who should have been in jails are being appointed to important posts and those who needed to be respected by the country are becoming questionable,” he said, in an apparent reference to appointments like that of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Member of National Assembly Abdul Qadir Patel, 53, as the new Health Minister.
Mr. Patel, who is from Karachi, has been implicated in a terrorist facilitation case for allegedly providing treatment to members of the Lyari gangwar. In March, the Islamabad High Court gave protective bail to Mr. Patel in the case pertaining to the treatment and facilitation of terror suspects.
Ex-Interior Minister Mr. Rashid, a vocal coalition partner of Mr. Khan, towed his line of blaming the U.S. for orchestrating the regime change in Pakistan through local politicians and said, “The agents of imperialist forces have exalted their dirty deeds.” Mr. Rashid is the chief of his Awami Muslim League (AML) party which is based in Rawalpindi.
