PARTLY FACETIOUS: Former First Daughter or?

"So what did you think of what Maryam Nawaz said outside the court yesterday?"

"Hmmm, interesting - you did not refer to her as Former First Daughter, or Heir Apparent, or The Niece, just plain old Maryam Nawaz."

"Well, think about it, she said if she calls daddy he will take the next flight back to the country!"

"So she was implying that daddy's return is dependent on her call? Unbelievable."

"Indeed and seriously I don't think daddy would return on any one's call - I would go as far as to say that even if his daddy had been alive, who Nawaz Sharif always listened to, and had ordered his son to return he would have resisted... I mean who in their right mind would return to go back to jail and in this summer's heat to boot, besides Maryam Nawaz's statement that daddy will return if he is provided justice and security was...was..."

"Facetious?"

"At best, I mean the guy is convicted after all and was in jail where there is little threat of an attack if you know what I mean......"

"Hey isn't Chauhan still the jails minister?"

"Not sure, why?"

"I have it on good authority that when she said security she meant Chauhan would not be able to drop in on her daddy in jail at any time and bad mouth/abuse him as only a true son of Punjabi soil can and by security she meant protocol which implies at least 50 to 100 people and private as well as official guards - you know public private partnership and..."

"Ha, ha, so you reckon she remains The Niece!"

"Yes so far, unless she comes up with another strategy but anyway I would like to bring to The Niece's notice that those around her are dwindling - Parveen Rashid was there but I would imagine he has no political future with The Uncle, Talal Chaudhary is another one...by the way where is Mushahid Hussain who she was responsible for awarding a senate seat to?"

"Mushahid Hussain is probably to The Niece now what Babar Awan is to Zardari sahib."

"Hmmm, both are educated, both have no constituency so are reliant on a party leader, any party leader, both love to be in the public eye..."

"Right, anyway what's up in Afghanistan?"

"The Indians are meeting with the Taliban, they don't want to lose their influence there, Ghani is off to the US to talk to Biden but you know he is not likely to survive after US withdrawal though Biden has not bothered calling The Khan..."

"No bases here so no offer of talks."

"So where is the Khan administration in all this?"

"There is the Kashmir issue and the Palestinian issue and the..."

"The Afghan issue would have repercussions here, actually have begun to have repercussions in our country as terror attacks are on the rise and..."

"Stop, The Khan is taking on the world and you talk of this!"

"I give up."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021