“What’s your take on all this?” “Well, the rats are away and the…” “Rats? It’s more like playing cops and robbers, and need I add the baddies reached Peshawar safely. Why are you laughing?”

“Remember I said that the Federal Board of Revenue is after the very, very, low-hanging fruit – you know levying withholding taxes to be collected in the sales tax mode by withholding agents who operate in the private sector?”

“Good heavens! Where did that come in from?”

“Well, the objective of going after the low-hanging fruit has been adopted by the Islamabad police as well. The low-hanging fruit were the PTI parliamentarians as they came out of the national assembly building one by one….and Gandapur was not that obliging, it took him eight hours to evade capture and reach Peshawar.”

“Where was the Brown Pope when this was going on? I mean, doesn’t he need to do a surgery on the police and…”

“He was wearing his other hat – went to inspect the work done on a stadium in Faisalabad or was it Jhelum or…”

“He is a truly great surgeon – I mean, he has planned so many surgeries…”

“Don’t be facetious. Anyway, one major player was conspicuous by his absence, and I am referring to Samdhi – he is in London.”

“Right, but when the main holder of a portfolio is in town, you don’t need a deputy – Shehbaz Sharif is in town.”

“Hmmm, but my take on this whole thing has been…”

“Wait, let me take a guess. That what we see happening today will surely happen tomorrow to those who are wielding the whip today.”

“The at least ten years in power mind set…”

“I hear you!”

“Anyway, that’s not my take. My take is that the Third Wife of The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless has come of age.”

“She came of age a long time ago.”

“Hear me out, please. In Sunday’s jalsa there was her photograph or painting next to her husband displayed prominently, though a tad smaller than his, just under the dais and this is a first – not that of his sister…. not that of…”

“How do you know it was her? I mean, no one knows what she looks like?”

“The black burqa…”

“Right, I have it on authority that the woman behind the burqa was none other than…”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024