PARTLY FACETIOUS: A very small sturdy breed of pony with a long shaggy mane and tail

“So The Man Who Must Remain Nameless could not possibly have written an article? Is that the Caretaker narrative?”

“Yes it is, and this from the horse’s mouth.”

“Really which horse?”

“An American Shetland pony – a miniature horse with slender proportions…”

“Ah that is because it’s in the nature of caretakers not to be able to transform themselves into thoroughbreds, the time they have is very limited, very limited and, yes I know the current batch have the distinction of being the longest serving caretakers, federal and provincial, though the caretakers for Punjab and KPK have served for a year now…”

“All elected prime ministers…”

“Selected or elected?”

“Don’t be facetious. OK let me rephrase, all accepted at the time of appointment prime ministers may not have served their full terms, but they did serve longer than a year.”

“Right, OK so proceed.”

“Anyway so the Shetland pony reckons it was ghost-written for The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and all the other Shetland ponies have decided to take on the British magazine that printed the article to challenge not only the attribution but also how come they published a man convicted for selling gifts given to him by Arab governments…”

“Do they not realize that the public loves the macabre and in the Western media interviews of convicted murderers have been sought, published and aired and many a convicted murderer has raked in millions of dollars by telling their story…”

“Macabre? The Man Who Must Remain Nameless does not…”

“Sorry I agree, what I wanted to tell the Shetland ponies is that having someone write on their behalf is a common enough practice, especially amongst politicians. I mean, does he think that the memoirs by American presidents are actually written by them? Besides, in a country where inflation has been consistently been at a high of over 35 to 40 percent per week and salaries not keeping pace and many a supporter of The Man Who Must remain Nameless in all walks of life getting an article commissioned and then reviewed by him should not be a source of bafflement.”

“Perhaps when the issue of failure to deliver even on this minor responsibility was angrily raised, the Shetland ponies came up with this defence.”

“As they say in the kitchen, hurry makes bad curry.”

“Kitchen?”

“Kitchen Cabinet.”

“Don’t be facetious.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024