PARTLY FACETIOUS: Wasn’t Captain Safdar (retd) at Maryam’s oath-taking ceremony?

“So Notification Maryam Nawaz (NMN) has transitioned.”

“Indeed she has. In her maiden speech as an oath taker rather than as NMN she addressed those older to her, her sisters, her nieces…?”

“Nah, not nieces, don’t laugh.”

“OK, so my point is, did she refer to wives?”

“Nope, and that reminds me, I didn’t see the much retired Captain anywhere.”

“With good reason, he couldn’t even get daddy in law to win from Mansehra, I mean totally useless, last I saw them together was when she went into Jinnah’s mausoleum, and he yelled Madre-Millat – a reference to Fatima Jinnah and that angered many……”

“Hey speaking of political heirs, Fatima Jinnah was the Quaid’s heir and…”

“Stop right there – anyway the Captain was not present during the oath taking or at least the television camera did not capture him.”

“I was told he was suffering from severe diarrhea.”

“Verbal or…or…verbal?”

“Let the poor guy be anyway the Daddy and the Uncle were there so there you go.”

“Hmmm, anyway in her speech she said the doors to her chambers, her office, her heart are open to all – friends and foes alike, but I don’t think she referred to the doors of Raiwind.”

“Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here…remember the famous quote from Dante’s book The Divine Comedy.”

“Do you know the context in which this line was written, or are you one of those who don’t read a book and yet pass judgement?”

“Well, no, I haven’t read The Divine Comedy…it’s kind of a challenge to read…”

“The book refers to this inscription as being on the gates of hell.”

“Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.”

“Oh shush, anyway, the oath taker pledged so much money on great schemes, but she should have looked at the account books first?”

“Oh, that reminds me of another absence – The Accountant Samdhi wasn’t there either, so Captain Safdar’s absence was…”

“Hey the Samdhi was busy trying to get a good position – and I heard that the stakeholders have yet to agree to his being a deputy prime minister, de facto or de jure or…”

“Anyway, one word of caution to the oath taker – the Caretaker Punjab government overspent 115 billion rupees and pledged to the International Monetary Fund that it would spend less, not more for the remaining four months of the fiscal year.”

“That has to be dealt by the Uncle and God forbid if he can’t deliver than daddy may need to hit him on the knuckles to start off with and…”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024