“Pervaiz Malik says that the Saudis have assured Pakistan that they can ship oil to us through the Red Sea.”
“I doubt it!”
“Hold your tongue mate, he is the only politician I know who was educated in Dubai or so claims social media, and he therefore knows the region well and…”
“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was also educated in Dubai, if you recall Benazir Bhutto was in exile in that city…”
“Bhutto Zardari went to school in Dubai I think, but his University degree was from Oxford, one of the premier institutions in the world.”
“Are you sure Pervaiz Mailk went to University in Dubai?”
“Yes, this may be because well before the rest of the world did he foresaw the end of unipolar world and the emergence of a multipolar world.”
“But Dubai is certainly not one of the pillars of the multipolar world – China is and so is Russia.”
“But if you don’t know Chinese or Russian and don’t want to learn either?”
“Can’t argue with that logic. But going back to Malik is he even aware of the cessation of shipping in the Red Sea because of Houthi attacks.”
“Don’t know about that, but we are a Muslim nation so perhaps we can get a Hungary-like exemption from the Houthis.”
“Hungary-like?”
“Hungary got an exemption from US sanctions for buying fuel from Russia.”
“All good that did them! Zelenskyy has stopped the flow of fuel from the Druzhba pipeline that goes from Russia to Hungary saying that it was damaged from Russian strikes, and he is not heeding the Hungarians clamour for inspection, a non-EU member’s stance is being supported by the way by European Union bureaucrats….”
“It’s a tit-for-tat world now – Hungary is stalling the 90 billion dollar package to Ukraine – but going back to our oil shipments through the Red Sea – does Malik sahib know that the Saudis and Houthis don’t really like each other? They fought a war…”
“He may have forgotten. But then perhaps he talked to the Houthi leadership or wait…wait…perhaps the Iranians have sought an exemption for us and the Houthis agreed. Dar told parliament that he was the only one who actually condemned the US-Israel attack within 15 minutes of the launch…”
“Stop right there.”
“What?”
“You know the firm instructions: any reference to Dar must be preceded by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.”
“Oh I am so sorry, so, so sorry, so…”
“You are still not forgiven – a bit more grovelling.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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