It’s the last week of Ramadan. Most of the educational institutions in Pakistan are drawing to a close; attendance in government offices too is getting thinner by the day, as everyone seems to be in a shopping mood to celebrate Eid next week.
This is understandable. Bowing to the mood of the general public, the government has announced a five-day holiday, a good decision to better close the offices than let the unproductive employees coming to offices half-hearted.
Currently the country’s top leader too is out of the country.
According to reports, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is on a 12-day tour of Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.
Now the question is, was this trip of Sharif really so essential at this time when the nation is facing multiple crises.
Pakistan is facing the worst level of power loadshedding and breakdowns. Besides there is this looming emergency to provide shelter and food to more than one million people, recently displaced from North Waziristan, owing to military operation to flush out Taleban elements.
The Pakistani Taleban who had made good their escape to safe havens across the border in Afghanistan much before the launch of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb, are now grouping along with their Afghan comrades to wage counter attacks on army.
Only recently heavily armed militants were found hiding merely a few kilometers away from Sharif’s private residence in Raiwind.
The rising political fever in the country is also piling up woes, as several opposition parties are threatening long march in the capital city of Islamabad on Aug. 14.
All this, some may argue, needs strong nerve and confidence on the part of a prime minister to leave his country as if the government machinery is well-oiled to take care of the nation on its own.
I think it is not good on part of PM Sharif to leave the country at this juncture. Even if his visit to perform Umrah was that necessary in this blessed month of Ramadan, then the whole tour could have been reduced to a day or two, instead of making it a 12-day long excursion.
We in Saudi Arabia however welcome him here, praying for the acceptance of his Umrah.
Masood Khan
Jubail
Timing of Sharif’s Umrah visit
