“Once you are the country’s chief executive you always sit at the head of the table.”

“And once you are no longer the chief executive of the country the head of a table is where you sit?”

“Ha ha, that’s a two-part answer in Pakistan. The first part asks another question: are you the chief executive wearing one hat or two hats?”

“The Khan is wearing multiple hats what with all the advisors who cannot be members of the cabinet…”

“The question, you moron, is which hats? You are wearing two hats - a reporter and an analyst’s hat but does that qualify you to sit at the table leave alone the head of the table?”

“In my house, the head is wherever I sit.”

“And that my friend is the second part of the answer. Once you are no longer chief executive your family and friends and the dwindling acolytes tell you the head is wherever you sit.”

“Don’t underestimate the return of the acolytes once you become a viable option again.”

“Agreed, however there are some who are self-deprecating who never like sitting at the head and others who simply do not know enough about table etiquette…”

“I know who you are referring to when you talk of someone who is self-deprecating…”

“Who?”

“Shehbaz Sharif. Even at his own house he sits in a corner and on a chair that does not appear to be as comfortable as where others are seated.”

“He has back problems so he sits in a high backed chair but yes he sits more towards a room’s corner than bang in the middle but I think that has to do with being the spare….and the more usual example of the spare is Prince Harry who has taken himself out of the running and…”

“Once his brother had children Harry automatically lost his position of being a spare – a position that our Shahbaz Sharif has yet to lose notwithstanding his niece and her selected team…”

“Right and an example of someone who doesn’t know the seating protocol?”

“The cigar smoking Sheikh Rashid – I mean any foreign dignitary and you sit across from them so that you are facing each other, did you note he and the Iranian Minister were sitting side by side and….”

“Theodore Roosevelt said it all: the human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of their pants.”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022