The worn out “carrot and stick” idiom proved evergreen when the controversy about the SOS sent to a Washington lobbyist, Mansoor Ijaz, by Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, exploded in the media. HH, who has airs that befit an HH, denied he had ever asked businessman MI on the request of his “boss” to save his government from the Pakistan Army. But when MI, gloating in his sudden stardom, actually wrote an article owning this episode and Mullen confirmed receiving such a memo, every one knew it was time for the stick.
Apparently, the “stick” in question is no ordinary stick. It is made of a special wood which is bendy and some say is regularly dipped in oil to maintain its flexibility, should its owner decide to give a sound thrashing to some one who steps out of line. In a totally unrelated event, General Kayani called on the President and although the COAS never leaves without his stick this time insiders noted that he was actually holding it throughout the meeting. That day, Mrs HH who is a media advisor to the President was conspicuously absent and was later spotted in Washington. Now that reminds us of another idiom: “Sticking together in good times and bad.”
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We hear that Aitchison College, also known as Chiefs College, once the most elitist school in pre-partition India, was created to keep royal dynasties alive and ruling. But with the departure of a bulk of royals after partition it had to take in a huge dose of middle class to function as a school. But it does seem that once bitten by the dynasty bug, the school cannot help but create dynasties of its own, even if they are not royals in the common sense of the term.
Aitchison has in fact become a major victim of its own dynasty syndrome. We hear that its present Board of Governors consists of members of many of the middle class dynasties the school created. They are either ex- students related to former and present board members, ex-principals who happen to be related to ex-principals, ex students who are sons of friends of present principals, a nephew or two of chronic board members, ex students who were pets of a former principle who also happens to be on the present Board. It is one big happy family looking after the matters if the school. With such an inbred Board of Governors, what can one expect from the institution. Retardation, what else.
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