White Lies

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What happens behind closed deiras remains a mystery but sometimes a little birdie tweets a few secrets to the press. Apparently, the condolence call by Zulfiqar Mirza accompanied by wife, the NA Speaker, Fehmida Mirza, on President Zardari, created no ripples. The occasion being sombre, the serious faces did not look out of place and friendly overtures would have been in the category of politics of the graveside. We hear that for the duration Rehman Malik got misplaced and was not to be seen. So is Mirza a put up job or not is a question that still remains unanswered.

However an ex-hockey player from the PML(Q) ranks has definitely been reunited with the PML(N).We hear that he called on Hamza Sharif and then on SS and NS. There was no welcome back announcement or any formal release to the press. He was readmitted into the mother party in the cloak of darkness without fanfare. It seems the hockey player has played hokey yet again.

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Show me the book he reads and I will tell you the kind of man he is. This is an accepted way of assessing a person. However with so many emerging writers within our political leadership one has to modify the formula to “Show me the book he writes and I will show you the man he is.” Take Humayun Akhtar, a former minister for instance. He just launched his book with the title or is it a puzzle, “Road Map: Pakistan’s Recovery by Muslim League 2011”. True to its title, the book is neither a biography nor a historical narrative. It is more like a manifesto which with a little imagination could fit into the fiction category. So what does that say about HAK. Confused and about to join the mainstream PML(N) in which case his manifesto will be thrown into the trash can.

Of course, the ever popular Imran Khan also launched his book this week in which his foreign publisher made the ultimate faux pas of including a map that shows Kashmir as part of India.

The backlash did dampen his popularity surge by getting the Kashmir lobby and the Kashmiri votebank up in protest. However the bloomer endeared him to his Indian fans but what about his fan following in the tribal belt? Now what does it all say about the writer? A crowd magnate who needs to screen his political support for blunderers and plunderers. That is if he wants to be a vote magnate as well.

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