ANJUM IBRAHIM

Imran is on a hat trick

“I have an observation.”

“What are you? The Chief Justice of Pakistan?”

“That’s rather a confrontational approach my friend, all I said was that I have an observation.”

“Normal human beings and by that I mean people like you and make specific or general statements – an example of the former could be that Nawaz Sharif and Zardari sahib are one-wife men and the Khan has gone through beta the two and is on a hat trick now and an example of the latter is all politicians are corrupt or all military dictators have undermined institutions more than the civilian dispensation and…”

“But I still have an observation because I define it as something based on what has already occurred.”

“As beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, recounting history lies in the mouth of the orator.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, anyway my observation is that while our politicians seem to overlook or ignore their own individual past ignominious decisions and/or actions they constantly refer to the ignominious decisions/actions of institutions and, need I remind you, that in most cases the individual associated with a particular ignominious decision/action is no longer in the same position in the institution”.

“That, my friend, is because a politician never retires while a chief of army staff or indeed a member of the judiciary retires.”

“Another distinction could be that the institutional head gets paid from the tax payers account while a politician doesn’t.”

“That’s not true, the members of parliament are paid monthly from the taxpayers’ money, the members of the cabinet are not only paid salaries but are given perks and protocol, which I hear is like an aphrodisiac, as well as some contracts and…”

“But you need to win an election to…”

“Not necessarily some contracts come your way even if you are not a member of parliament, a member of the ruling party or not for example Hanif Abbasi’s ephedrine case during Gilani’s tenure and Metrobus contract during the Sharif tenure and…”

“Interesting.”