A gift horse and a prime minister. You can’t shoot either in the face when they walk up to your door. This way Nawaz Sharif managed his charm offensive with Imran Khan when he went over to the latter’s house in Bani Gala. What was Khan going to do? Refuse him entry.
But, somehow, even Imran Khan got good PR brownie points. The public got to see a softer side of the man, what with him playing a host.
At the end of the day, Imran Khan is just a man. And the way every man has a thing or two to push through men in power, Imran Khan also put across a sifarish through the prime minister. Something about CDA objections on the path leading to his house or something to that effect.
Mukmuka.
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In the age of the soundbite, strength is a weakness. Those adept in the art can find that pithy, razor-sharp barbs can also come back and bite them in the rump.
Sheikh Rasheed’s oath of leaving politics indefinitely if the dollar were to come back to 98 rupees might have sounded crisp back when he made it, not so much when the dollar actually slipped to the 98-rupee value that the finance minister had earlier said it would.
Immediately, the ‘Pindi politician fell into the “jaanwar ka rang kaunsa hona chaahiye?” mode. No, he has started saying, I want to ask how they did it. Something or the other, Sheikh Sb, as governments in power do everywhere, but what’s your excuse?
It has since gone back to a hundred rupees, a value still lower than it has been since some time.
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The residents of an elite military housing society have to face a shutdown because a road that runs through it to the Walton airport in Lahore is used by the first family whenever they need to use the airport.
Moreover, a women’s cricket ground in Model Town has been converted into a helipad for the same family. More or less around the World Women’s Day, actually.
The first family, being Lahoris themselves, should realize the creatively colourful language of the Lahoris inconvenienced.