ANJUM ibrahim

Pak-NZ match and APC

“Are you sure Maulana Fazlur Rehman is a Pakistani?”

“Oh for Pete’s sake!”

“No I really want to know. I am aware that he has spent his entire life in this country, he hails from a political family, his dad, Mufti Mehmud, was also in politics and served as the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa besides being a respected Islamic scholar and…”

“The Maulana is very different from his dad - I mean a chief minister holds no candle to being the chair of the standing committee on Kashmir for decades. Anyway what is it about the Maulana that made you ask this silly question?”

“Don’t be facetious; anyway I am just curious, extremely curious, given that he seemed unaware of important events in this country, important from the perspective of the public, that upstaged his All Parties Conference.”

“I don’t think he upstaged it, and if you are referring to the venue of the APC which was in a hotel which is not a five star hotel, then let me inform you that as per Naya Pakistan austerity is the way forward and…”

“Maulana sahib is no longer a member of parliament, no longer heads the Kashmir committee.”

“Yeah, he has no access to government funds but the Maulana has a legitimate source of income, substantial income and…”

“When you have been a parliamentarian for so long as the Maulana and a chair of a committee to boot then somehow spending one’s own cash for APCs is kind of not the done thing in this country; anyway the choice of venue was not the reason why I asked whether the Maulana was a Pakistani.”

“Why did you?”

“Because he chose our cricket team’s match day for the APC when we are still in the running for the semi finals and the cricket team, run by a Khanzadeh made sure that the APC was completely upstaged by the match. And the fact that the team won upstaged the APC all the more…”

“Don’t be facetious. Besides guess who didn’t upstage someone else in spite of being more of an eye candy…”

“Maryam has to first establish credentials within her party, I mean getting support from Zardari sahib and son is not enough, and really she cannot compare herself with Bilawal who has established his credentials within his party and appeared extremely relaxed during the APC.”

“If daddy had not been in jail and if daddy had so directed…”

“Her uncle was leaning towards the Maulana throughout the APC instead of his niece and that sort of body language…”

“I heard from a good authority that the Maulana took advantage of Shahbaz Sharif’s leaning towards him throughout the APC and gave him the bill for the use of the hotel hall and…”

“Don’t be facetious.”