PARTLY FACETIOUS: If you cook nihari you can’t expect quick results?

“I am not sure President Zardari is well enough to revisit his focus on occupation of constitutional offices as opposed to heading ministries and….”

“You mean because he is obviously ailing and appears extremely frail and…”

“No, good heavens, no.”

“I don’t understand – I thought it was a good policy to get as many constitutional offices as he could possibly get which would mean he could disassociate the party from flawed policy decisions…”

“Flawed?”

“Irrespective of low inflation and 16 billion-dollar worth of rollovers from friendly countries poverty levels have reached a high of nearly 44 percent and this is going to definitely have a negative impact on the electorate’s determination of which party to vote for in future and…”

“I thought Sindh is still firmly in the palm of his hand.”

“Yes, but you know what I mean.”

“No, actually, I don’t.”

“Well, all I can say is that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has placed the gun on President Zardari’s shoulder and fired twice that I know of, maybe more….”

“Hmmm, you reckon if Nawaz Sharif had gone the Zardari sahib route, Shahbaz Sharif would not have fired from Zardari saheb’s shoulders?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Anyway Shahbaz Sharif is not a hunter, he has no guns, shoes from Italy and suits from the UK maybe, but no guns.”

“You being facetious?”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“I will let that pass anyway if you recall the Cholistan Green Initiative envisaging four canals that the Sindh government is now opposing and the raise in the petroleum levy through a presidential ordinance is not going down too well with the electorate and….”

“Hey this President gave up his powers to block the Prime Minister’s…”

“Indeed but doesn’t the party need to revisit its policy to occupy constitutional positions and leave the executive to others.”

“Well, that is still cooking.”

“Under a rather slow burner.”

“Hey, if you cook nihari you can’t expect quick results.”

“True.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025