"Ptui to you."

"Hey you spitting at me?"

"Yes I am."

"Good heavens, what did I ever do to you?"

"You are silly - I mean as a supporter of the policy of non-conflict..."

"Ahhhhh, but my friend Nawaz Sharif's First Born got the crowds but not the votes and all political parties need votes to remain relevant and..."

"Sheikh Rashid doesn't get votes without shall we say critical support and gets a ministry even though his performance has been consistently appalling..."

"I disagree - Sheikh Rashid has been the best Information Minister ever. He gives complete loyalty to anyone able to pay the right price, and it never matters to him who he defends - it could be a dictator, it could be Nawaz Sharif, it could be..."

"Hey there are many, many others like that...let me count..."

"OK you are right; but when I spat at you I was spitting at all the supporters of Uncle Shehbaz and need I add The First Born managed to show her mettle to her uncle effortlessly by inviting a private television channel into her house - she was shown wearing a dark blue suit and a matching duppata was on her head a la Benazir Bhutto style and...wait let me finish....she was shown looking intently demure at the computer screen and the viewers were led to believe that she is listening to the ongoing Pakistan Democratic Movement meeting and..."

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

"So who were the fools who rushed in? The non-virtual PDM participants, the virtual participants, the PPP..."

"Don't know about the fools but do know about the angels."

"OK who were the angels who feared to tread?"

"Depends on which side of the room you were seated...Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for example was seated amongst the shall we say the less known, and when The Maulana was holding the press conference he was nowhere to be seen..."

"Maryam Aurangzeb was there..."

"She has managed to be either narrative neutral if you know what I mean - so no angel by definition. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi..."

"Please understand where he is coming from...he has no future if Shehbaz becomes the Prime Minister - I mean he, a former prime minister with the ambition to get that job again, may get a job as a Chairman of Murree Development Board..."

"See that's what I sometimes wonder? I mean The Khan is so used to getting the Prime Minister's protocol now so how will he handle himself when it goes away..."

"He will never leave, the people love him, those dratted thieves and dacoits and..."

"Sounds like he has come of age as all his predecessors thought exactly the same."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021