ISLAMABAD: Following the government’s lacklustre response to the drone strike that reportedly killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, opposition parties have once again criticised the prime minister for not appointing a full-time foreign minister.

Following the PPP’s lead, the PTI also submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly on Tuesday to discuss national security matters on the floor of the house in the aftermath of the drone attack.

Although Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has appointed Tariq Fatemi as special assistant and Sartaj Aziz as adviser on foreign affairs, he is keeping the portfolio of foreign affairs with himself. Opposition benches in both houses of parliament have, time and again, highlighted the absence of a full-time foreign minister, but to no avail.

“I don’t understand why a full-time foreign minister cannot be appointed; why either Fatemi or Aziz are not given the ministry or why the position cannot be filled from within the federal cabinet,” said PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, adding that she couldn’t understand the logic behind keeping one of the key ministries without a minister.

Ms Rehman, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US under the previous PPP government, said this was a challenging time for Pakistan, within the region and also globally.

“It is hard to understand why the prime minister insists on keeping decision-making within a closed circle,” she said, wondering who read important cables at the Foreign Office in the absence of a federal minister.

A similar argument was made by Dr Shireen Mazari, the PTI’s chief whip in the National Assembly and one of the signatories of the adjournment motion that was submitted by her party.

“I don’t know why we do not have a foreign minister when the country is facing so many critical issues. This is absolutely shocking,” she said, when asked why the prime minister was reluctant to appoint a foreign minister.

Why the prime minister would need a minister when he has a special assistant and an adviser, Dr Mazari asked rhetorically, adding that the roles of both men were not even properly demarcated.

Dr Mazari argued that had there been a foreign minister, he would have handled the issue differently, knowing that he would be held accountable.

“But look how our Foreign Office made a mess of the killing of Mullah Mansour,” she said.

The PTI submitted the adjournment motion “to discuss an issue of grave national importance affecting the strategic security of the country and calling into question the ability of the state to protect its territory and air space”.

It was filed in reference to the US drone attack in Balochistan on Saturday, May 21, ostensibly targeting Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour and about Pakistan’s confusion over the identity of the target as well as the discovery of a Pakistani CNIC and passport on the target, belonging to one Wali Mohammad.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2016