White Lies

The Memogate episode has proved a money spinner for our top-of-the-chart chat shows keeping their ratings at a level where they give saas bahu serials a run for their money. But the squealer that set the ball rolling must be wondering where he is placed in the hierarchy of rats and squealers. Mansoor Ijaz, a US businessman of Pakistani ethnicity, who bared all about his role as a lobbyist (for whom it is unclear) in a newspaper article is certainly not in the category of historical traitors, like Judas Iscariot or Delilah for instance. He is neither in the company of medieval renaissance traitors as Sir Thomas Moor and the Earl of Essex. He is not even a Mafioso squealer like “Big Joey” Massino or Joe Valachi. So what is he? I suppose one has to create a new category for him. “Attention seekers of all times”, perhaps.

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And now the Nannygate issue that catapulted a certain Ayesha Ahad onto media focus. It started with a press conference by an association of Philippino house maids working in Pakistan. It was claimed by one that she had been badly beaten up and kept locked by her employer, a lady called Ayesha Ahad.

The accused Ayesha promptly held another press conference and stated that actually this issue was created by Hamza Sharrif who had married her and then wanted to get rid of her (with the assistance of Phillippino nannies, one assumes).

Poor Ayesha was unable to produce a Nikahnama and must have felt thoroughly wronged. Well to console herself, she has suddenly become a big spender. Just before Bakra Eid, she was seen at a high end goldsmith in Lahore’s Fortress Stadium accompanied by daughter and nephew. She was buying diamond jewellery as if it was bargain chocolates. In between selecting gems that could put a dent in the bank account of the richest, she proceeded to preach politics of women rights to captive female customers. “All the women in Pakistan must stand up for me” but wasting no time she was heard saying “can you pack that diamond set and that also for me”.

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 We hear that before leaving for the SAARC Summit where our youngest ever foreign minister was destined to meet her Indian counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar got a long briefing from the Foreign Office. However it was noted that the lady showed keen interest tin two historical chapters, both pertaining to combat.

She knew very little and wanted to know all about the 1965 and 1971 wars with India. Well she is young enough not to have experienced the wars but she is surely old enough to read a few authentic books on the subject now that she is what she is.

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