“Shehbaz Sharif says that the whole of Pakistan is waiting for the return of the prodigal.” “Nawaz Sharif is not, I repeat, not the prodigal. He has been unfairly treated and…”
“Wait a second. Didn’t the story of the prodigal son relate to his leaving the family home? And hasn’t Nawaz Sharif been away from the family home for four years now?”
“He left not from the family home but from jail.”
“Minor difference I reckon.”
“May be we need to send you to jail to understand the difference between jail and home.”
“Anyway the prodigal left his home after squandering his inheritance.”
“Right the prodigal son was destitute, Nawaz Sharif has been living in the lap of luxury…”
“Did I say the parable is exactly applicable to Nawaz Sharif”?
“I can’t see any similarity…”
“I equate the squandering of inheritance by the prodigal son with Nawaz Sharif’s stint in jail – I mean even if food was coming from Raiwind, yet his living conditions, irrespective of what class of jail he was given, compared extremely unfavourably with outside jail conditions.”
“OK I can relate to that.”
“Second Nawaz Sharif as a modern day prodigal, invested very wisely and unlike the prodigal….”
“He invested wisely in politics or wealth?”
“Both my friend – the one triggers the other.”
“Which triggers what? Wealth triggers political capital or the other way round?”
“Political capital varies from negative to plus in the land of the Pure – so it’s not a constant but when it’s in the positive territory, it acts as a trigger to amassing greater wealth.”
“Right but what does all this have to do with what Shehbaz Sharif said of his brother? That the whole of Pakistan is waiting…”
“We have an expression in Urdu: kehnay may kya harj hai (what is the harm in saying something?)”
“Ha ha ha, that means Shehbaz Sharif will have to arrive at the airport to receive…”
“Yep but hopefully the key stumbling block to Nawaz Sharif’s return will be removed by 21 October: his upgradation to Plan A.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023