“How would you translate the Urdu word anari into English?”

“Unskilled?”

“I hope this is not a dig at our emigrants who are remitting billions of dollars each year to their families back home, which is keeping the economy afloat!”

“And that is why they must be allowed to vote, don’t you think?”

“Even that is contentious in this country – one party wants them to be eligible to vote from the local constituency that they are associated with, another wants them to have a separate overseas Pakistanis seat with a separate minister…”

“That’s the beauty of our democracy – agree on nothing, verbally attack when out of power, add the verbal attack with punitive physical action against the opposition when in power….”

“But the way, I don’t think the correct translation of anari is unskilled. I reckon an amateur or an inexperienced person or…”

“Well we have experienced people who are amateurs in their field and the proof of that pudding is in the destruction they leave in their wake – the Greedy for Portfolios Samdhi (GPS) was allowed to have his cake and eat it too as the finance minister for decades, a major contributor to the 41 percent poverty levels today, and recently he was shunted out of that ministry, but he continues to amass portfolios and spreading the fruits of his anari …”

“That explains his expanding waistline – having his cake and eating it too.”

“Don’t get personal. Anyway I wasn’t referring to the performance of the cabinet – selected, elected, directed to be appointed whatever… I was actually referring to Fawad Chaudhary’s recent accusation of the current batch around the Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless as being anaris.”

“But these anaris hold high office in the party right.”

“Yes, even though they were not prominent before the vote of no confidence, yet they are prominent now.”

“And the Chaudhary held a portfolio pre-no confidence days and now doesn’t and has also been kicked out of the party.”

“Yep I would define that as an anari though in our politics anaris can be transformed into players if they play their cards right.”

“Which card suit you reckon: spades or clubs or hearts or diamonds?”

“Spades I reckon is the order of the day – as you know clubs have pushed many former loyalists into being anaris, hearts are not in the play these days, and diamonds have to be 5 karat and today there are none on the market.”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024