ANJUM IBRAHIM

Comparing the Khan to…

“I love The Khan, he amongst all his counterparts, and by counterparts I don’t mean former captains of a national cricket team….”

“Oh, who do you mean?”

“The Other Two Leaders of national political parties….”

“Is it Zardari sahib or Bilawal of the critical Bhutto blood, is it Nawaz Sharif or Shahbaz Sharif, both of Abbaji blood, or is…..”

“You are being facetious.”

“I just want to know who you are comparing The Khan to?!”

“Those who are the decision makers notwithstanding their convictions or anticipated convictions or…”

“Right you and I know that The Khan holds weekly cabinet meetings as well as daily meetings on some poorly performing sector or the other unlike his counterparts and…and…wait he also speaks extempore without first checking out his history or geography books…”

“Right but then he does a lot that is the same – cutting ribbons on a lot of projects already cut by his predecessors…”

“Hey that is necessary to show that the project is now associated with an honest upright man…”

“Oh you mean the kick-off of Diamer Bhasha dam? I thought that was to show that the civilian and military establishment is on the same page…..”

“Thank you for clarifying that, I had mistakenly thought it showed that building dams is also something that the civilians can no longer accomplish.”

“And rightly so - the idea to build this dam is decades old encompassing three to four administrations.”

“Hmmm anyway The Khan has also surrounded himself by the same people and in spite of the security situation in the country having improved dramatically he inaugurates many a project from the comfort of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat or House.”

“But there is one thing that The Khan does that none of his counterparts has done. And that my friend is his putting his own selected people under the bus…”

“Jehangir Tareen….”

“That’s old news I was referring to making public the financial details of all the advisors and the special assistants, all twenty five or so of them….”

“Ha ha that’s true, I mean the minister only keeps a paltry sum in his Pakistani account, so much for investing where his mouth is….”

“His mouth is not in Pakistan.”

“Anyway these guys are defending themselves by saying that all of them are patriotic and cite the amount of remittances sent back….”

“Two things my friend, these guys are not the usual remitters or those who send money into the country, instead they send it out and second….”

“There is no second my friend…they were thrown under the bus by The Khan.”

“Is it the Metrobus?”

“What do you mean?”

“The jungla bus notwithstanding, Metrobus continues to run, one of the few running concerns in this country, and the orange line was kicked off by The Buzz….”

“Kicked off is the right word, the party is kicking off previous projects.”