They’re not as caustic as the sort they have in the US, but TV political attack ads have made their way to Pakistan.
One in particular, a PPP ad that plays a recorded conversation between Shahbaz Sharif and corrupt teddy bear Justice Malik Qayyum is under judicial review given its sensitivity.
Pakistani politicians pull no punches when it comes to each other. Though this is a global phenomenon, really. Who could forget the petty Hillary Clinton attack ad during her primaries for the Democrat nomination against Barack Obama, where the aides actually dug out an old primary school essay he had written on what he’d do were he to become president and then criticising it!
Constituency-level jeering in Pakistan has always been pretty caustic. Bringing certain scathing virgin words on national television was the work of PTI leader Imran Khan. But the new trend of attack ads is a new phenomenon that is bound to get more and more interesting.
Keep an eye out.
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Those within the glitterati with more dash than cash have it made. With almost everything imaginable being made in China, imitation knockoffs of designer bags, the sort that cost what a rural village makes in a year or two, are also available in Pakistan for much lesser prices.
Standard economics predicts this isn’t too great a deal for luxury goods. Abundance is going to lower demand for the real thing and, consequently, the knockoffs too.
