“Our politics is about re-relevance.” “Is that a political science term?” “If it isn’t it is one now.” “Right, reminds me of the concept of baani in Urdu, the English equivalent being the establisher.”

“Oh, I thought baani of a political word was preferred when there was a ban on the use of that individual’s name. The public use of the name of the baani of MQM is banned, the name of the baani of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is banned…”

“One question, is Nawaz Sharif baani of the PML?”

“Not the PML, that is the Quaid, Nawaz Sharif needed to hyphenate that party’s name with the initial of his first name to take ownership…”

“If he had taken the initial of the last name, wouldn’t it have been easier to bestow the party to his daughter?”

“Nah there are a whole bunch of Sharifs, Shehbaz Sharif’s children have the same last name and I believe some cousins, besides Sharif is such a common name in this country I guess the Anglo-Saxon equivalent is John…”

“John is a first name, usually while Sharif is the last name.”

“OK, I stand corrected, so he opted for Nawaz?”

“Zardari sahib is the only leader who took on his father-in-law’s name and made it his own.”

“Yeah, but only after he was long dead and only after Benazir Bhutto died.”

“Well if you are going to get gritty about it then yes; anyway don’t forget Nawaz as a verb means conferring a favour on someone, right and if ‘N’ becomes the prime minister for the fourth time he can confer so much on so many.”

“Like what? The finance minister’s portfolio to one who has no clue about basic economics, Interior on someone who…”

“I was referring to his voters.”

“Well given his team members experienced at doing what they do which is the same-o same-o I would be surprised.”

“Don’t be facetious, anyway when I said our politics is a game of re-relevance I meant the leadership, and then a cascading effect – example is when Nawaz Sharif is in favour all his associates find the environment extremely beneficial and some who were relevant in the past becoming irrelevant and then relevant again.”

“Chaudhary Sarwar has not yet returned to the fold of the baani PTI, as you know.”

“But Javed Hashmi has returned to the PML-N fold.”

“Right, but then there are the critical number who are savvy enough to continue to be relevant.”

“There I agree.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023