PARTLY FACETIOUS: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

“I would like to quote Shakespeare from his play Julius Caesar: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

“Brutus?”

“Really that caught your attention?”

“Well Brutus took disloyalty to the nth degree didn’t he? He was one of Caesar’s assassins…and I know what you are referring to: The Khan must identify the Brutus in his own party…”

“Plural, Brutus in plural – around 20 Pakistan Tehrik-i-Inssaf parliamentarians – provincial and national – from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where The Khan did not need the likes of the MQM or the PML-Q to form a government, did not show up at his invitation…”

“Hmmm, and those who did show up did not utter a single word, just listened to him and…”

“Perhaps The Khan did not focus on that – he like his predecessors is used to obedient silence now.”

“Remember Benazir Bhutto once lost big because she ignored her grass root supporters; remember Nawaz Sharif lost after he won two third majority…”

“Right, but the two claimed rigging and the riggers and the…”

“Maybe that explained the result only partially!”

“Maybe Maryam Nawaz reckons that daddy’s narrative has come home to roost.”

“Which narrative? The Panama narrative? Give voters respect…”

“I thought it was give respect to votes not voters.”

“Oh you are so bad - anyway daddy’s narrative is based on history: he returned after his exile and became a third time prime minister…”

“Daddy’s history is limited to what he did right not what he did wrong, again and again and again and…”

“Right, but the condition of BA as the minimum qualification for standing up for elections is no more right! So you quoting Shakespeare to our parliamentarians many of whom may not know his work is kind of silly.”

“Who would you have me quote… Ghalib or…”

“Saadat Hasan Manto said: Hindustan had become free. Pakistan had become independent soon after its inception but man was still slave in both these countries — slave of prejudice … slave of religious fanaticism … slave of barbarity and inhumanity.”

“The vote was given to The Khan not to these…these…”

“Read Manto please.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021