While Colonel Gaddafi fights for political survival and all the perks that come with it, he may be unaware of another move in Pakistan to do away with his name. The colonel can bomb protesters in Libya but what can he do about Lahoriites who want Gaddafi Stadium renamed. He obviously cannot send fighter jets to kill those who demand that an iconic building discard the name of a dictator who is getting really bad press these days. Some alternative names have been posted on social network pages and one of them is Salmaan Taseer Stadium. Not surprisingly, it is the late governors friends and relatives, not his political party, that are sponsoring the campaign.
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We hear that while Mian Sahib refuses to entertain any critique of younger brother Shahbaz, the latter discards any fault-finding of his secretary, Tawqeer Shah. Any disapproval of Shah before the boss is likely to be countered with He is like my younger brother Now what is this about munna bhais.
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Political battles can take a nasty turn as the CM Punjab found to his discomfort last week. He had just dumped his PPP partners from the Punjab cabinet, citing a charge sheet as long as the NAB file on a certain VVIP. The discarded were seething with fury. A lotas, shame, shame campaign against the successor Unification Group was launched but that did not pick up speed. The discarded were feeling rather disheartened. It was at this crucial point that the tragic news about federal minister Shahbaz Bhattis target killing was flashed in the media. After the condolence messages were aired some discarded elements jumped to the conclusion that a book written by the Punjab CMs wife some years ago could prove to be their secret weapon in the war.
The book was titled Blasphemy and its Urdu translation Kuffar was also available in the market. With a title like that the book had to be blasphemous. So a whispering campaign was launched, a few calls made to the media and a mini protest organized. Unfortunately for them, this powerful work of fiction had nothing to do with tauheen e rassalat. It was actually about the horrific life of a fiendish pir as narrated by his much-abused wife. Nobody had bothered to flip the pages and check the content. Luckily, another target killing was avoided but no thanks to the discarded.
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