“Marriage as a form of alliance…” “Please! I am not sure who you are referring to, but where there is the matter of Pakistani Samdhis angels fear to tread.”
“What?”
“Don’t get upset, where angels fear to tread is a gentle criticism towards those who get themselves into dangerous or difficult situations without carefully thinking about what they are doing.”
“And need I add where Samdhis rule the roost, the implications can be on…on…”
“On 231 fast approaching 232 million people.”
“Isn’t that Pakistan’s population?”
“Purely coincidental. Anyway, when I said marriage as a form of forging an alliance is a powerful tool with political families in the Subcontinent I was referring to second tier leadership – not the main families, the tertiary families.”
“Even if such a marriage means divorcing one to marry another?”
“Allowed in our country only if guided by the spirits.”
“Now you are being facetious.”
“Hey, you can think what you like, but I meant well.”
“You remind me of The Rana, always meaning well!”
“His tone is always measured, unlike all the angry politicians who come on television, though I admit there is an element of menace in those quietly delivered tones.”
“There you go, anyway, what I wanted to say was that in Pakistan there have been no political marriages amongst the top leadership. Benazir Bhutto married Zardari sahib, and at that time no one knew that he would or even could ever lead his wife’s party. Nawaz Sharif formed an alliance with some Generals, while his daughter married an unknown whose only call to fame after God knows decades of marriage is his marriage.”
“Good Lord, but The Man Who Must Remain Nameless….”
“Third time lucky, he became the prime minister soon after.’”
“Was that a coincidence, or timing, as at the time all his chickens had come home to roost in any case.”
“Neither, it was spiritual support and…”
“Dear Lord.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023