“Is there anyone out there who cares about his or her legacy?” “Jinnah, we all respect him and love him and…”
“Anyone still of this world.”
“Well the Bhuttos, father and daughter are gone, and Zardari and the Bhutto Zardaris are still getting votes by invoking their names but at the end of the day the legacy of the inheritors is yet to be written.”
“I guess you will say the same for Nawaz Sharif and his progeny?”
“Yes I would, see they are all inheritors, Zardari sahib inherited from his wife, a few generals made Nawaz Sharif into a leader, his daughter may have been notified as a strong successor but you and I both know that the true test will come once Nawaz Sharif is no more and if Madam Notification can take over…”
“The Khan?”
“Again who writes about his legacy but let’s be honest all The Khan’s political decisions have been checkmated, the latest with respect to his assumption that elections will be held within 90 days, and this in spite of his large following – his own and those who agree that the leadership of the other two national parties is corrupt…”
“So what we would need is a non-partisan historian…”
“Right in that case he or she isn’t going to be from this country?”
“How about a brown sahib settled abroad with two passports?’
“Don’t be facetious. We are not talking of allowing non-residents voting rights.”
“Right what about the legacy of the judiciary and the army chiefs?”
“Ha ha ha.”
“I am serious - this is a serious question?”
“Well let me quote Shakespeare to you – methinks he doth protest too much, and by he I am not limiting myself to one individual…”
“Saqib Nisar and some of his predecessors and perhaps successors General Bajwa and all of his ambitious predecessors and…”
“A Chinese proverb: he who takes revenge for a small insult will have a bigger one thrown at him.”
“Hmmm, but not before retirement.”
“Retirement?”
“Retirement from playing the game of thrones – be the throne in the dining room, or the kitchen, or the bathroom or…”
“How about in the throne room?”
“See that’s the problem in Pakistan: everyone sitting on the throne reckons it’s located in the throne room.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023