ANJUM ibrahim

The meaning of word ‘transition’

“Two transitionists made The Khan not so proud yesterday?”

“Transitionists? You know what being in transition means in countries where English is spoken as a native language!”

“Those countries where English is not a native language, only the elite speak it like in the Land of the Pure, the language has had a separate evolution. Lotaism is an English term in this part of the world, as is jalsa and…”

“You think The Khan is unnerved by the Maulana – he was stumbling for words as he spoke in English, no doubt a language he chose in deference to the presence of the World Bank president, who spoke of progress in Pakistan…”

“I keep telling you the fault for these extempore speeches rests with Nawaz Sharif, he took reading out prepared speeches to the point of ridiculousness and so The Khan went to the other extreme…”

“Our economic team leaders were present at the English speaking ceremony and they would have loved to translate for the World Bank president - I reckon they may be candidates for a lucrative job once they are asked to leave their position or if their tenure expires, which ever comes sooner.”

“Hafeez Sheikh is a retiree…”

“But there are some extremely lucrative consultancies awarded by international agencies.”  

“Indeed but anyway I bet the World Bank President read out a prepared speech.”

“Ha, ha, indeed. I reckon The Khan’s focus should have been on the complete disconnect between ease of doing business and output in Pakistan. Large scale manufacturing output is consistently declining and small and medium enterprises are reducing the numbers working due to lower demand courtesy all the progress mentioned by the World Bank president…”

“President of the World Bank is a Trump appointee, do you think he has been tasked by Trump to check out…”

“The Khan’s extempore speech delivery skills?”

“Don’t be facetious, The Khan would win hands down there – anyway as I recall Dar supported policies that destroyed the country’s macro-economy and during his tenure he would cite foreign journals and get some staff of donor agencies to praise ‘progress’ and…”

“Same o same o, who said anything is different today!? But going back to the two transitionists, transitioning from one government to another, I was referring to Container Shah, who in a philosophical mood focused on the previous marchers…”

“What’s philosophical about that?”

“You will have to ask him anyway he did not focus on how the previous governments stopped the marchers, and he inaccurately claimed Nawaz Sharif was not on exit control…”

“Sad that! and I guess the second Transitionist is Sheikh Rashid and the state of Railways is on a downward trajectory.”

“Indeed.”