PARTLY FACETIOUS: Looting and wilful destruction of public property not allowed anywhere in the world

“So what’s up?”

“The narrative is finally taking some traction.”

“You have to narrow it down – are you referring to the French protesters who were treated as badly as our protesters have in the past….”

“Hey be careful…”

“I said, In the Past or ITP if you will. Anyway there are protests in Albania, in Belgium, Italy….”

“For your information these protests are against the rise in the cost of living and need I add their governments continue to refuse to buy cheap Russian oil and continue to send their taxpayers’ money to Ukraine where audit reports suggest corruption rate is higher than…than…”

“Don’t say it. Anyway for your information we stopped the march because of the marchers’ intent, based on previous marches by the party…..”

“Oh I thought the reason was they refused to take ownership of anti-terror….”

“Sorry yes that’s it, I forgot, I normally take the words of the dual hatted Interior Minister as correct, but he has been very quiet these days…. I wonder why?”

“He is very busy – the Sri Lankan and English teams are in Islamabad.”

“Right! That explains why he let loose his deputy. And need I add the deputy did a good job – there was vitriol, there was justified anger and there was….”

“Yeah he is good at taking the baton further but he needs the baton before he can be…be launched. If you recall Talal Chaudhary got himself barred from elections by the court because of his unwavering support for Maryam Nawaz….”

“Well that’s not such a sacrifice, is it? He got a Senate seat and a federal ministry.”

“Besides it ain’t too much of a sacrifice in our country – the number of those who can no longer stand for elections…”

“Hush anyway between his current boss and his previous….….”

“Nope not gonna answer that.”

“OK I want to bring it to your notice that looting and wilful destruction of public property is not allowed anywhere in the world. And if I recall correctly the number of trees that were burned on Jinnah Avenue during one march a few years ago….”

“Ï remember the laundry drying on Constitution Avenue – the gates were used as drying poles….”

“Yeah, anyway when I said the narrative is taking traction I was actually referring to the statement by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who said The Maulana has the right to protest but must support anti-terror…..”

“See that’s the problem with the Sharif family: they do not learn to play cricket.”

“Sad that! It’s time the Chairman PCB position be given to a Sharif.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026