PARTLY FACETIOUS: Where stakeholders fear to tread

“Power to the public!”

“Indeed, where the government and powerful stakeholders feared to tread the public’s anger bore fruit and The Khan ordered his supporters to vacate all roads except where the long march has reached.”

“I thought the book title was where angles fear to tread, a novel by E M Forster.”

“You being facetious?”

“No why?”

“The book’s title is not where angles fear to tread but angels fear to tread and it’s about the love of much older woman for a younger man…”

“Well caught, I didn’t realize you were listening that carefully.”

“What made you think that?”

“Well The Khan says the same thing every day and people come to hear him speak, the Sharifs claim the same things every day and they are reported every day…”

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles with the diehard supporters of each party. Anyway Dar sahib has decided to withdraw the government’s appeal on riba and tried to hog the airwaves and then off he went to see The Maulana and …”

“Did he say when because I didn’t hear any date? Let me give you a backgrounder: in 1992, thirty years ago, the Pakistani Federal Shariat Court (FSC) declared riba un-Islamic, a decision upheld by the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court.”

“So let’s see, since 1999 Dar has been the Finance Minister four times isn’t it!”

“Well people do change. I mean he slunk out of the country in 2017 fearful of the possibility of another term in jail, he then stayed in London till his return end September 2022 and perhaps religion bit him on the…the…what body part is most susceptible to being bitten?”

“It changes: for a snake it’s the foot I guess, for a dog it’s a leg, for a lion it’s the upper torso…but anyway Dar has been consistent in one aspect notably he slunk out of the country in the Prime Minister’s plane and he returned on the Prime Minister’s plane.”

“Right, any way I reckon Dar needs a pir…”

“Gender bias…”

“OK a spiritual guide because the day he chose for the announcement was the same day Pakistan beat New Zealand, and the day Shehbaz Sharif went to London instead of returning to Pakistan so not much coverage.”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022