“Two men who hate each other, Biden and Trump, met up.” “That’s tradition, isn’t it – the incoming and the outgoing president…”

“Well, that ain’t happening in the Land of the Pure. I actually don’t recall any of our outgoing prime ministers actually completing their term?”

“Raja Parvez Ashraf completed his term.”

“If you define the term narrowly as the end of the tenure of the elected party then yes I agree, but don’t forget Raja sahib was in office less than a year I think.”

“Zardari sahib completed his term as president…”

“So did Arif Alvi, and don’t even get me talking about the number of terms completed by our military adventurers, it’s these dratted chief executives with ambition to…to…”

“Secure power according to the constitution.”

“Yep, did Shaukat Aziz complete his tenure?”

“Define tenure of those prime ministers who, how can I put it! Ah, yes who unlike those appointed by the leadership of political parties, know to operate under de facto as opposed to de jure conditions, but he was allowed to occupy that position for only three years and three months – less than the time allowed to his civilian counterparts who won the elections.”

“Or were gently guided to win the elections. But given that the current batch have shown their ability to amend the constitution, do we need another amendment that would make it mandatory for the incoming and outgoing chief executives to meet to ensure a smooth transition….”

“Not possible.”

“Because The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless will never ever accede to this?”

“No, that’s not what I was referring to.”

“Because the current batch thinks that they are not likely to be de-seated in their lifetime?”

“Well, they all think that, and I am sure Visionary Ahsan Iqbal is preparing a Vision 2050…”

“Right, so why do you think.”

“Because the outgoing goes away a lot sooner than the incoming.”

“Hmm, the outgoing having been kicked out.”

“Well, that too, but I was thinking of the caretakers.”

“That’s right, I forgot about that element in our transition. Caretakers provide for a less volatile transition in theory, though in actuality the declared losers accuse them of…of…”

“Dealing with many, many punctures.”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024