It is no secret that President Zardari hops on a plane and heads for China (not necessarily Beijing) at the drop of a hat and quite often to seek some Chinese wisdom on business and commerce. However, these meetings may not be a one-way process as we have allowed ourselves to believe. We hear that at a recent meet AZ quizzed the Chinese president on the secret of such phenomenal economic progress. He was quite unprepared for his answer. It was, he said, a Pakistani working at the World Bank who provided China with the blue print for progress. That Pakistani, now retired was promptly invited by the Man on the Hill to give a crash course on how things could be fixed in Pakistan. As the discussion unfolded it was revealed that our President gives as much as he gets from Beijing and that there is more than one Pakistani giving advice to Beijing. Apparently some time back, with the help of a map, AZ also gave a few tips to Chinese wizards on how to manage their silk routes.
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Recently when media kingpins were invited by the COAS for a briefing and dinner, they literally got a taste of their own medicine. These journalists had been crying hoarse about the extravaganza at the state mansions. They had carried several stories on how guests were feted with six course meals and that included reps of donor agencies here to put pennies in our begging bowl. These journalists had lobbied for austerity in the corridors of power and when dinner was served that is exactly what they got. The meal consisted of two dishes one of them the poor mans staple diet, daal. However there was no economizing on ash trays and guests were given a free hand to smoke whenever. Apparently, the chief loves a regular smoke and here he will take no dictation, even from the media.
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Rumour has it that there is much commotion in the corridors of power about the embarrassing WikiLeaks. At least two VVIPs are very unhappy that their names should be taken in vain so many times. The PM however is relatively happier because he, among the trio in Islamabad, is the least quoted in WikiLeaked documents. However, PML(N) has a real dilemma on its hand. How does it interpret the term dangerous used to describe the man in Raiwind and attributed to a UAE royal? Is it dangerous as in a lion or is it dangerous as in unknown. That is something that will need some working out.
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