"Gone are the days of good management."
"Good management or good governance? I thought the key was no longer management but governance and, need I add, in that case we have never had good governance - I mean corruption remains unimpeded irrespective of the clothes worn by our Presidents and...."
"You know you should learn to listen carefully - I meant good management. I was referring to the ongoing fight between the Archaeology Department and the Punjab government."
"I did hear of that! Apparently the Punjab government has still not paid the Archaeology Department for the use of the Lahore Fort for the light and sound show, a Lahori tradition which follows the horse and cattle and, for the special viewing pleasure of our Sindhi brethren, camel show..."
"So payment will make the antiquities law null and void?"
"Well yes."
"Shouldn't the law be upheld, payment or no payment?"
"Where do you think you are? In the land of the infidels? Here everything has a price, as you must be aware after recent events. Besides, you are just prejudiced against the horse, cattle and camel show 'cause you don't like to watch our Dehati brethren perform."
"Hey, I like animals as much as the next person but you know the filth around Fortress during this annual event is something else - I mean what with horse dung, cattle dung and camel dung all over the place and..."
"Speaking of camel dung did you hear that our favourite Sindhi, the Governor Ibad, was here to see the show and..."
"He had a cameraman beaten up because he took a shot of him smoking?
"Don't know if it was him or our over-officious Punjab police."
"You know these latest batch of politicians are just too sensitive - when Mian Sahib was in power some of the videos making the rounds in Lahore were much more interesting shall we say?"
"Oh indeed."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2004

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