White Lies

Their man in London

Well, here’s a bit of irony. The man who will be our high commissioner to the UK has had a bit of a zigzag trajectory.

The ex-army man gathered a measure of fame through his letters to the editor of a certain newspaper. They were primarily against the Sharifs. These were simpler times, mediawise. No Twitter and no independent broadcasters. You could become a celebrity if you were a prolific (and gifted) enough letter writer.

Well, the then PM Benazir Bhutto requested the editor of the newspaper to get hold of the fellow. She first made him a part of her media team, then elevated him to her own press officer and then sent him as press minister to our high commission in London. When the amused aforementioned editor asked her whether the chap had the qualifications to deal with the technicalities of press management, she replied that his letters alone had done more for her than thebabus of the information service.

Another lifetime later, the same Sharifs are making the man their guy in London.

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Presidents and presidents

A bit of a commotion at the Islamabad airport. Swarm of high security personnel, bullet-proof vehicles, the unmistakable plainclothes policemen, the cordoning off of certain areas of the airport.

The day happened to be when the courts granted former president Musharraf bail in his cases. The sort of bail that meant he could even leave Pakistan if he wanted to.

Putting two and two together, the hapless travelers at the VIP Lounge thought the man would finally be making a run for it.

But, as they were later informed, it was the incumbent president, leaving with his family to the holy land for religious purposes.

During the run up to the George W Bush-led Iraq war, a group of hippie lady protestors had decided to take off all of their clothes and lie down in a formation that would spell out “No War” from an aerial shot. This, the Economist, in traditional British wry wit, captioned: “Right idea, wrong president.” A clever swipe at the scandal-prone Bill Clinton.

It’s a shame that the idea of running away is now mostly associated with he of the mayn-darta-nahi-houn fame. Even Musharraf’s presidential successor, though to be embroiled with a plethora of cases, is thought to be staying put rather than making a dash for it.