THE Capital Development Authority of Islamabad the Beautiful has done what only the brilliant Capital Development Authority of Islamabad the Beautiful can do: name one of the main avenues in the city after an arch bureaucrat, someone called Agha Shahi!

What was so special about Agha Shahi? The fact that he served a military dictator, particularly one that had hanged his own former minister and president and prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto?

If Ninth Avenue simply had to be named after a foreign office functionary, why not the good Aziz Ahmed who has only recently been remembered as a most refined and graceful gentleman and who too was Shahi’s boss as foreign minister? Or Jamshed Marker, voted the best diplomat in the world? But why in the world Agha Shahi, please, who is not noted for anything other than longevity in office?

Indeed, there is no road in Islamabad the Beautiful named after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s most brilliant leader, elected at that, who till today commands a nationwide following unmatched by any other politician barring his own daughter, the horrifically murdered Benazir Bhutto.

There is no road named after Benazir either, despite the fact that she was a twice-elected prime minister of the country. Whose party is the majority party in the federation and in two provinces, and which will be part of governments in all the provinces. There is no road named after her, the brightest star on Pakistan’s political firmament.

Indeed, there is no road named after Nawaz Sharif, also twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan and whose party today has the most seats in Punjab and is at number two in the National Assembly where his party is in a coalition with the People’s Party. So why Agha Shahi?

Last week I had made some suggestions to the new leadership. Here are some more: Adding my voice to that of famous columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee, let me ask that the prime minister immediately send his military secretary and ADCs back to their respective services. The parliamentary system simply does not allow uniformed officers hovering around parliament.

Indeed, why should a uniformed officer attend meetings of the prime minister with high functionaries from abroad such as the duo of Negroponte and Boucher most recently? Why should the PM’s deliberations with anyone for that matter be heard by officials who owe their loyalty elsewhere?

In any case, the political parties which have been kicked in the teeth by the army for too long now should realise that the trappings of state power such as military secretaries and ADCs never had anything to do with their ascent to power through elections.

I mean, Yusuf Raza Gilani did perfectly well fighting his election with his own civilian team of a private secretary and other aides: why should he need an MS and ADCs now? Why should he not select and groom his own personal staff from among those he knows and trusts? How difficult is it to connect telephones?

This is not all. The guards for the PM’s residence and offices should not be drawn from the army either. As we well know they are troops from the notorious 111 (Coup) Brigade, and all they have to do once the top hierarchy of the army decides they are taking over the country is to turn their guns inwards, towards the person they were ostensibly ‘defending’ a minute earlier, and put him or her in chains.

The police can be asked to specially train a battalion strength of specially selected policemen under the command of an SP to provide guards for the PM and, once the Commando is a memory, the president. These troops could have a new salary structure like the motorway police so that the best are inducted for this most sensitive of jobs.

And now to the visit of M/s Negroponte and Boucher. By golly, what brass to come a-calling when the future government hadn’t even come into office. What made matters infinitely worse was that the prime minister hadn’t even been sworn-in when the two rolled in, like very bad pennies indeed.

Also, might one ask why the Deputy Secretary of State of the United States called on the COAS? Isn’t the State Department supposed to interact with the government in the FO, and not directly with department heads? Was there a note-taker from the FO recording what was said?

A word about the appointment of Siraj Shamsuddin as principal secretary to the PM. Much is being made about his Grade-20. Well, if he hadn’t been hounded out of the country for no good reason he would have been in Grade-22 long hence!

I met Siraj just once while he was in exile in London and that too by accident. Let alone looking like someone living in luxury, my heart broke when I saw the condition he was in. Recompense must be made for the way in which the (quite grotty) State of Pakistan has treated him. He is an extremely efficient officer and a good man and I wish him well.

As an aside, the news has just come in that Major General Mahmud Durrani has been appointed national security adviser to the PM, ostensibly to be a bridge between the US and Pakistan, and between GHQ and the Pentagon. He is well known to the Americans, we all know that; but it is a bad idea, a very bad idea. Not only are he and the Commando thick as thieves, he is a rabid People’s Party hater.

To end I must point to yet another political statement of the COAS, this time on March 23 in front of a gathering of retired army officers, to the effect that the army will live up to the ‘expectations’ of the people.

Let me repeat myself: no army in the world has the means of ascertaining the expectations of the people. The very best any army can do is to follow, truly and loyally, the dictates of the properly constituted government of the day which alone is the repository and the arbiter of the people’s ‘expectations’. I daresay an Indian COAS would have been sacked, at the very least rapped hard on the knuckles for making such a statement.

P.S. The PM has ordered that henceforth federal ministers will only use 1600cc motor cars, but sleek, black BMW 7 Series limousines are often seen in corps commanders’ motorcades. Are they the personal property of the officers concerned or army issue? Would the army please clarify? And my friend Tariq Aziz ‘Babloo’ cruises in a latest model and huge Mercedes something-or-other: what about that when ministers will ride Toyota Corollas?

P.P.S. I never thought one such as poor old I would one day feel sorry for our macho Commando but I did feel deeply sorry for the pathetic figure he cut at the PM’s swearing-in. May I suggest the Commando ask Rashid Qureshi to whistle up a recording of the event and look at it? My bet is that he will cut his losses and just go away. (And we haven’t even seen the minister’s swearing-in yet(!) — I write this on the morning of Monday, March 31.)

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk