“Have you heard of a guy called Muhammad Safdar Awan?” “Not in that order – I mean there are many, many, Awans floating around in our politics. Firdous Ashiq Awan…”

“I haven’t figured out if she is the Ashiq or the world is her ashiq?”

“Well considering that she has changed a number of political parties and need I add was conferred a portfolio during her last two party changes I would be within the realm of logic to say that others have been her ashiq…”

“Conferred? Really?”

“Portfolios are conferred by the party leader or the military adventurer in our country – there is little linkage with merit or an understanding…”

“Enough already but for your information she served under three masters who in your terminology conferred her with a federal portfolio – no, not the PML-Q they didn’t give her a portfolio though they gave her a reserved seat in 2002, wait let me finish – Gilani who made her cry, The Khan who dismissed her in spite of her spirituality and The Buzz who also dismissed her…”

“Cause by that time she had compromised her spirituality…”

“Hush, then there is Babar Awan – another guy who has never won a general election…”

“Who cares - he has a Phd from Montecito or was it Monticello? I know it was Monti Carlo.”

“Don’t be facetious anyway I know many Safdars – there is Major General Aymen Bilal Safdar who was, don’t know if he still is, the Inspector general of the Frontier Corps, Balochistan, then there is…”

“Hmm, anyone more famous than the Major general?”

“Can’t think of another right at this minute. Anyway the first name Muhammad, meaning praiseworthy, is very common in Islamic countries for obvious reasons – a British newspaper reported in 2014 that there are a total of 150 million men and boys who bear that name…”

“And if you put the three names together who do you get?”

“Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s son in law, Maryam Nawaz’s husband.”

“Well there are some of us who are known in this world by association.”

“Indeed he is no Zardari in the making, but anyway unlike his wife who takes herself rather more seriously than is warranted, he does have the potential to provide some comic relief to the rest of us.”

“Hmmm, a Japanese proverb is, time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.”

“Indeed and the English proverb he laughs best who laughs last…why the long face?”

“Neither the husband nor the wife have a sense of humor – they both are very serious people who take themselves very seriously, it’s just that their hold over reality is…is…so different from the rest of us and so we laugh.”

“Hmmm.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023