Presidential spokesmen are supposed to maintain high standards of public conduct but obviously not in Pakistan where foreign-brokered deals often bring fake democrats to power.
A simple fact is that the Presidency released an official photograph of the President and the Prime Minister with the Pakistan Cricket Team. This official photograph taken inside the Presidency showed no trace of the traditional portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam. Instead there were four – not one but four – portraits of PPP leaders on the wall behind the President and the team members.
Instead of firing off an angry statement [The News, 1 July 2009] full of fume and bluster, Mr. Babar could have admitted an oversight, acknowledged the importance of the official portrait of the Founding Father of the nation, and ended the controversy by saying this will not be repeated. While at it, he could have also taken the courtesy of giving full respect to the ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ instead of repeating the single word ‘Quaid’ several times in his statement. [He should excuse us since we Pakistanis are lost now with so many permanent ‘Quaids’ leading our illustrious political parties.]
But instead Mr. Babar ended up giving us a long lecture about “the detractors of the Bhuttos,” the “Bhutto-haters,” and my favorite line, “It is a measure of the greatness of the Bhuttos that even a mention of their name boils the blood of the detractors forcing them to stoop as low as to fabricate lies.”
Is this how a Presidential Spokesman should sound like in a large important nation? He is right in a sense because it is not true that the portrait of the Founding Father has been removed from the Presidency. But why should the Presidency release an official photograph showing the framed pictures of four party leaders and none for the man who should be there in the first place? Is there no protocol officer in the Presidency who could prevent such blunders?
And when will we see people like Mr. Babar act professionally like government officials should and not like some smalltime party activist shouting street slogans?
A simple fact is that the Presidency released an official photograph of the President and the Prime Minister with the Pakistan Cricket Team. This official photograph taken inside the Presidency showed no trace of the traditional portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam. Instead there were four – not one but four – portraits of PPP leaders on the wall behind the President and the team members.
Instead of firing off an angry statement [The News, 1 July 2009] full of fume and bluster, Mr. Babar could have admitted an oversight, acknowledged the importance of the official portrait of the Founding Father of the nation, and ended the controversy by saying this will not be repeated. While at it, he could have also taken the courtesy of giving full respect to the ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ instead of repeating the single word ‘Quaid’ several times in his statement. [He should excuse us since we Pakistanis are lost now with so many permanent ‘Quaids’ leading our illustrious political parties.]
But instead Mr. Babar ended up giving us a long lecture about “the detractors of the Bhuttos,” the “Bhutto-haters,” and my favorite line, “It is a measure of the greatness of the Bhuttos that even a mention of their name boils the blood of the detractors forcing them to stoop as low as to fabricate lies.”
Is this how a Presidential Spokesman should sound like in a large important nation? He is right in a sense because it is not true that the portrait of the Founding Father has been removed from the Presidency. But why should the Presidency release an official photograph showing the framed pictures of four party leaders and none for the man who should be there in the first place? Is there no protocol officer in the Presidency who could prevent such blunders?
And when will we see people like Mr. Babar act professionally like government officials should and not like some smalltime party activist shouting street slogans?
If you like this, check out these two earlier posts:
Shame on our ruling party, these so called leaders should be removed from our beloved country Pakistan. THanks for doing great service by keep us informed.
ReplyDeleteViqar Haseeb
Oakville ON Canada
I am waiting for a successful "Operation Midnight Jackal". Don't we have people like Brig Imtiaz, Major Amir and Major Zaheer Ul Islam Abbasi?
ReplyDeleteThis is in response to Mr. Frahatullah Babar’s explanation of the issue concerning the removal of Quaid’s portraits from the presidency. While Mr. Babar has vehemently denied any such act, I still have a few observations/ questions for him:
ReplyDelete1) How does Bilawal Zaradri qualify to have his portraits in the presidency as he is a party head but not an elected representative?
2) Mr. Babar claims that the presidency still has portraits of previous dictators. How is it the present government’s prerogative to even contemplate removing anyone’s portrait from the presidency be it a military dictator? These people are a part of our history whether we like it or not.
3) In the July 1 issue of The News, on page 3 a picture of Quaid can be seen in the background during the president’s meeting with Mr. Shaid Malik but on July 2, page 1, the picture of Quaid is again missing from the same spot during the president’s meeting with the prime minister and the COAS. Are we only going to see Quaid on demand now?
Mr. Qureshi, when did you ever run into a fellow Pakistani (that includes myself) who is given to accepting errors of judgment?
ReplyDeleteThe best course often is to admit a mistake and take steps to avoid it in the future.
Living nations do this and are doing it as we speak.