The entire Lebanon government resigned on August 10 after protests over a deadly explosion in the port area of the capital Beirut on August 4. Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his and the entire cabinet’s resignation at a broadcast published by the National News Agency in Lebanon, the state-run media outlet.
The Diab government had come under severe criticism after twin explosions near Beirut port in which over 160 citizens lost their lives whereas more than 6,000 were injured and over a dozen others were still missing after a nuclear-like blast in a storage house of a massive stockpile of the extinguishing chemical ammonium nitrate, which is the main component used for making fertilizers.
A day earlier of the entire government’s resignation, the Lebanon information minister Ms. Manal Abdel Samad announced her step down while apologizing to people for the government’s failure to protect their lives.
Intense protests had erupted in all over the country, with many calling for ministers’ “resign or hang,” according to NPR’s Ruth Sherlock.
The Lebanon government has set an unprecedented moral virtue and a sense of responsibility by presenting itself for accountability after the explosion despite the fact the Prime Minister stated while announcing his resignation that he was an “external victim of a corrupt and selfish political leadership”.
Such a demonstration of courage and steadfastness is seldom witnessed in most of the democracies especially in South Asian countries like Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.
Pakistani people have endured many catastrophes due to human error and terrorism, but no government official has ever taken responsibility and resigned. Even after deadly railway accidents in the last two years the Railway Minister Shaikh Rasheed has always refused to resign or even take the responsibility.
Similarly, the shameless Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan put the entire blame of the crash of PIA passenger aircraft in Karachi on May 22 on the pilot. About 97 including passengers and members of crew had lost their lives due to crash in Model Colony near Karachi Airport.
The Minister event went to the extent to say at the floor of the National Assembly that many Pakistani pilots possess fake degrees and training certificates. This resulted in removal of Pakistan origin pilots from many international airlines. Later, he amended his statement, however the pilots had already suffered a lot and country’s name was dotted worldwide.
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