"Your civilian politicians are a waste of time," former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said, recalling how former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto allegedly refused to take a call during the 1991 passenger plane hijacking after her household informed him that she was asleep.
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Kausikan also delivered a scathing assessment of Pakistan's political leadership and state institutions, warning that the country has long remained "on the brink of failure".
Speaking during a wide-ranging interaction with journalists at the National Press Foundation's International Reporting Fellowship, when a Pakistani reporter's questioned whether Islamabad's geography was the root of its problems.
Kausikan rejected the argument and said, "That's just an excuse. The fact is that Pakistan, from the very beginning, has been mismanaged terribly. "
"The military is both part of the problem and what holds the country together. Your civilian politicians are a waste of time, all of them, regardless of party," said Kausikan, who served as Singapore's permanent secretary for foreign affairs from 2010 to 2013 and currently chairs the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
To illustrate his point, Kausikan recalled the hijacking of a Singapore Airlines aircraft by Pakistani militants in March 1991. He said the hijackers had demanded to speak to Benazir Bhutto, who was out of office at the time and residing in Sindh province.
According to Kausikan, he contacted Bhutto's residence around 3 am or 4 am with the assistance of Pakistan's high commissioner, but initially struggled to find anyone who could speak English.
"I don't know who it was. It was some servant or some member of the household, right? So, I explained to him carefully what's the situation: there are four or five hijackers, we're not sure what they want, but they want to speak to Madam Benazir Bhutto, and they have told us if they can speak to her, they will surrender. If they cannot speak to her, they will start killing the passengers. So, I explained this to the person three times," Kausikan said.
"And he said, 'Madam is sleeping, cannot be disturbed.' And put down the phone," the former diplomat added.
