“I don’t understand the logic at all. I mean The Khan delayed and delayed and delayed till the option was taken away from him and now he has gone on the streets asking for early elections. I mean wouldn’t it have been in his hand if he had not egged the Opposition to table the vote of no confidence and…”
“The Khan is a sportsman — he wanted to hunt the three rats with one shot.”
“Whoever hunts rats? I mean I have heard of big cat hunting…”
“I heard Shehbaz Sharif has a pet cat that is rather big so…”
“Don’t be facetious — big cat as in lion, tiger, cheetah, leopard…”
“Wow so many options, so I know the PML-N sign is that of a tiger, and not a snow tiger, a normal tiger…”
“Why the distinction?”
“Snow tigers are rarer, more out of the box if you know what I mean.”
“Is Shehbaz Sharif a snow tiger you reckon?”
“Nope, he has to work within the same o same o but he is a cheetah — very fast — I mean one reckons he is in one place and he has already finished and gone onto the next assignment. His elder brother is a lion, head of the pride, doesn’t want to hunt himself — gets others to hunt for him and…”
“Maryam Nawaz?”
“She is a Siamese — the prettiest of them all but the most aggressive and territorial of all cats.”
“Hmm, and what about Hamza?”
“He is still in the evolutionary stage — from Bengal cat — a mix of leopard and house cat and one really doesn’t know which parent he will take after eventually.”
“Right, but going back to The Khan the airwaves are full of speculation on how much of a threat he is to the sitting government but seriously I don’t see it. The guy is out of power due to decisions that ensured he was out of favour, when he had the control he insisted on the status quo and now that he is out of power he is insisting on a change of status quo…I mean I don’t understand…”
“The airwaves say he has successfully shifted attention away from the three and a half years of poor governance and high inflation and has gone with a narrative that is saleable now…”
“Jalsas are where the diehard supporters come, jalsas do not translate into higher seats in the assemblies because even if you have 10 lakh people in a jalsa they are from hundreds of constituencies. To win, you need the swing voters and swing voters have seen his team’s performance and would therefore make a decision based on that basis…”
“Right, but as a swing voter I would repeat the words of someone, though who I don’t remember, Pakistan needs someone bigger than his or her speeches.”
“The American actor Kevin Costner said it in a film.”
“Oh?”
“Read my lips, American and actor.”
“Ooops, it was inadvertently…”
“Cowards die many times before their death…”
“That’s Shakespeare — safer.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022