“Nawaz Sharif, Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif…” “Three times a lady, an old song by Lionel Richie…” “Nawaz Sharif is no lady.” “Retract immediately that sounds like a verbal attack.”

“Retract what? That Nawaz Sharif is no lady or to ladies for referring to Nawaz Sharif as a lady?”

“Don’t be facetious, the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius said that Chi Wen Tzu thought three times before taking action though twice would have been enough.”

“Ah but Shehbaz Sharif took elder brother’s name not three times or even four but more than ten times…”

“Remember when we were instructed to wash our hands for more than 20 seconds, to ensure all Covid19 infections were neutralized?”

“So the more you refer to Nawaz Sharif the better for your political future. But ten times in one speech is excessive don’t you think?”

“Sycophancy is alive and well in this country my friend.”

“Hmmmm, and sycophancy is used as a measure of loyalty to the party chief irrespective of whether you are a family member or not.”

“Sycophancy defined as glorifying the party head is common enough. But what is the difference between a family member glorifying Nawaz Sharif and a non-family member glorifying Nawaz Sharif?”

“Glorifying Nawaz Sharif by a family member is not considered groveling, even if there is jostling to get ahead of the political inheritance queue…”

“I thought that was already decided and…”

“No, not quite. Notification Maryam Nawaz (NMN) can be controlled only by daddy, Shahbaz Sharif and all the other Shariflings dare not go against Nawaz Sharif or his directives though surprisingly, recently Hamza Shehbaz Sharif said, the IMF package was due to his daddy and not the Dependent Samdhi (DS).”

“Shahbaz Sharif praises The Dependent Samdhi every time he gets a chance – a standard operating instruction from Nawaz Sharif and…”

“See, that shows the elder Sharif is out of touch with ground-realities. First, the DS has cost the country 4 billion dollars in lost remittances in just nine months due to his inane policy of controlling the rupee dollar parity without reserves, second, inflation is sky high because of over spending supported by domestic borrowing and third, after continued visible support for DS the narrative that if re-elected for the fourth time Nawaz Sharif will reduce inflation will simply not sell.”

“Ah but you forget Nawaz Sharif never completed his term during his previous three stints because of his inability to understand ground realities.”

“Ha ha indeed, but you forget the fourth indicator of Nawaz Sharif disregarding ground realities: the stakeholders like his brother so…”

“But…but…”

“Nawaz Sharif may think he is Plan A but I reckon he is Plan C, if not D.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023