Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Mian Nawaz Sharif has appointed two retired military generals as the party's central office bearers in what seems to be a move to mend fences with the military establishment. Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch (Retd) and Lieutenant General Salahuddin Tirmizi (Retd) have been appointed to the offices of the central assistant secretary-general.
The decision was announced at the party's central management committee meeting, held here at PML-N Secretariat on Saturday. Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch (Retd) remained Balochistan Governor from February 1, 2003 - August 11, 2003 during former president Pervez Musharraf's tenure and is currently Member National Assembly from PML-N. He was retired prematurely as Corps Commander Quetta, for he was to be appointed as Governor Balochistan.
Lieutenant General Salahuddin Tirmizi (Retd) - Former Corps Commander, is now associated with PML-N. Political analysts are of the view that the appointment of these two former military generals as central office bearers is aimed at projecting the soft image of the party in the military, but the arch rivals are dubbing the move as a step to build better working relations with military establishment.
Besides, the two newly inducted office bearers, the meeting was also attended by senior vice president Sartaj Aziz, deputy secretary-general Ahsan Iqbal, secretary-information Mushahidullah Khan and former secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra. The meeting decided to celebrate the Independence Day in a befitting manner and instructions were issued to the districts office bearers across the country in this regard. The meeting also decided to constitute media co-ordination committee to effectively communicate the party's central level activities and point of view to masses. The party's central secretary information would head the co-ordination committee while secretary information of four provinces would be its members.
The meeting also decided to constitute a special committee comprising parliamentarians to look into the complaints being received against Nadra and the countrywide census. It was agreed that a forceful move would be initiated for the removal of the public concerns in this regard.
The PML-N meeting also took serious notice of continued loadshedding during Seher and Iftar, causing serious problems to masses. The participants of the meeting said the government has completely failed to abide by its promise of no loadshedding during Seher and Iftar.
They expressed serious concern over the closure of trains before Eid causing serious troubles to people. They said it seems that millions of passengers who use Pakistan Railways as the cheapest mode of transportation will be deprived of the facility due to incompetence and corruption of the present government. The participants demanded of the government to take immediate steps to end power load shedding and restore train service on emergency basis, so that people could join their families on Eid.