Consider the following scenario and – as much as is possible – let go of your personal biases and look at the issue itself.
N Leaguer Danial Aziz has alleged that the KP government has invested its hydel funds in the stock market. For those not well-versed in matters of public finance, governments cannot invest in speculative markets.
The PTI, obviously, denies these allegations. It says that the aforementioned misappropriation occurred during the MMA’s tenure. Danial Aziz sticks to his guns and produced an official document compiled by the KP government for the current fiscal year that, it would appear, implicates the sitting government.
And with that, readers, I have described the context for the 19th October installment of Abb Takk’s Tonight with Fareeha Idrees.
Danial Aziz, squared off against former KP Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai. Now Mr Yousafzai, if he is so sure of his government’s innocence, could have argued his case on matters technical. But during the course of the programme, he dropped a very big slur on his counterpart. Caustic even by our talk shows’ already fallen standards of decorum. He was reprimanded by the anchor, by which point he apologised, took that word back and replaced it with another caustic slur. You know a fellow’s rude when siyasi tawaif is the lesser offensive of his words.
Danial Aziz, not known for his cool otherwise, remained calm and reiterated his case. Shaukat Yousafzai’s extremely intellectual counter-argument: I’ve called you such bad names but you’re still talking.
Fareeha Idress finally kicked Yousafzai out of the show (he was there by video feed) and continued the programme.
This ejection wasn’t new for Yousafzai. As PTI’s first information minister (the government has had three of them and counting) he was perhaps the first and only sitting information minister whose entry into the Peshawar Press Club had been banned by the latter on account of being too rude.
