PARTLY FACETIOUS: I have great respect for the PCB, and its selection process
“I hear a Pakistani astronaut is off to China’s Tiangong space station, the very first foreign national to visit the station.”
“Oh?”
“Yes he will be a payload specialist.”
“I hope he has been cleared by the Wandering Albatross.”
“I don’t understand your query.”
“Well my concern relates to the word pay in pay load and given that we consistently perform poorly on the Transparency International index of corruption…”
“Payload specialist has nothing to do with money – it is a non-career astronaut selected by a partner nation to conduct specific experiments or manage specialized equipment on a crewed spacecraft.”
“Phew. Another query: was he selected by the Pakistan Cricket Board ….”
“Shut up. Going on a spacecraft mission is not, I repeat not a game its serious business and China has been kind enough to take a non-astronaut …”
“I have great respect for the PCB, and its selection process. In spite of the loss potential of our cricket, second to none, look at the hockey team – I don’t recall when I last heard about a hockey game ….”
“So maybe we should merge the PCB and the PHB.”
“I think it’s called the Pakistan Hockey Federation, it’s not a board.”
“There you go: we need to change the name from PHF to PHB.”
“Speaking of the Sri Lankan team, they are still here going on for more than a month or two right?”
“Yeah traffic is a bummer with the security …”
“Why don’t we give them citizenship?”
“Then they may become eligible for protocol and between protocol and security the former has greater shadowing law enforcement vehicles.”
“Dear Lord, you can be so very trying.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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