“What did you think?” “You have to narrow it down, the turmoil in the world with two ongoing wars – and no I am not referring to wars in African nations, where some countries are plagued by guerrilla warfare – the ones I am referring to are between Russia and Ukraine and another between Israel and Gaza and…”
“Gaza is not a country and that is the root of the problem right!”
“Yes but Hamas rules Gaza while Al-Shabab…”
“Yeah, yeah, anyway we too have our share of guerillas if you know what I mean.”
“Our guerrillas exhibit an Islamic touch…”
“Touch or an embrace”?”
“OK whatever, anyway I was referring to the return of the prodigal.”
“Third time return for a possible fourth term and each time on his return he won the prime minister’s house except in 2008 – after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.”
“The prodigal in the parable in the Bible returned only once - our prodigal has returned three times now – now does not that show the marked differential between Christian nations and ours.”
“Don’t be facetious.”
“What is even more significant is that Nawaz Sharif stayed in the UK for four years and yet he did not allow any Christian parable to cloud his way of thinking and…”
“Shush anyway Notification Maryam Nawaz’s tears were on full display…”
“Right and I hope our so called self-proclaimed analysts learn a valuable lesson from this!”
“What?”
“That politics is about staging not narrative.”
“That’s interesting anyway what was your take on the speech of the prodigal?”
“He saved a samdhi and let the brother down the chute?”
“I don’t get it – he was saying the problem was not with the brother but with the policies of The Man Who Must Remain in Adiala till after the elections.”
“His comparison was between the prevalent prices in 2017 when he unceremoniously left the Prime Minister’s House was with August 2022 – he ignored the disastrous inane policies that the samdhi Ishaq Dar followed from September 2022 to June 2023.”
“How about comparing the prices in March 2013 when the PPP led government dissolved assembles and in 2017 when…”
“Well, how about explaining the largest ever current account deficit that faced the country after the 2018 elections?”
“As I said to you earlier: it’s not about the narrative, it’s about staging.”
“Right you are.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023