“We are a nation of naysayers or yaysayers.” “That’s fair right. You agree or disagree.”

“One can abstain too right, and as the US has learnt to its cost, an abstention makes one’s friends engaged in genocide for over five months angry.”

“George Eliot, the famous novelist, wrote that blesses is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.”

“I do hope that you are not obliquely referring to what our Law Minister said during a press conference after the meeting between the Chief Justice-led three-member team and the Prime Minister led three-member team.”

“No.”

“The six Islamabad High Court judges whose letter brought on this hectic activity?”

“Nope, I am just kinda proverb kind of person.”

“Right anyway, Saint Augustine said that to abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.”

“Stop it right there – if you dare to refer to Chief Justice’s successful litigation against the unfair and untrue allegations hurled against him by…by…by….”

“Stakeholders? But I would advise extreme caution, you know like extreme caution is a warning that is displayed prominently near power stations and…”

“Well, not the one where I live – what between periodic technical faults and load shedding…”

“Don’t be facetious. Anyway, granted that ant committee tasked to investigate the matter presupposes the need to investigate, and the honourable six judges have learnt that their word is as…as…as meaningless as that of a national party leader who is out of favour…”

“The Man Who Must Remain Nameless…”

“Why do you always get so personal? I made a general observation that I believe is relevant to all opposition leaders – past, present and perhaps future.”

“Fennimore Cooper, the guy who wrote classic novels like The Last of the Mohicans, the Deer Slayer, said all that a good government aims at…is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulation social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities.”

“Too long, my friend – those who you may want to read this quote have a small memory span. How about from the gut comes the strut, and where hunger reigns, strength abstains – a saying by Francois Rabelais, a famous French author.”

“Appropriate with the Ramadan…”

“Dear lord. I give up.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024