PARTLY FACETIOUS: The art of negotiation

"What makes a good negotiator?"

"A rich man, the richer the better as a negotiator, because he would have made many lucrative deals on his way to becoming super rich."

"That's assuming that he was not born rich."

"However rich you are born, you either add to the wealth or not so any addition would mean he or she is a good negotiator."

"America's First Son-in-Law, a rich man in his own right, was supposed to succeed where all previous presidents/diplomats failed in getting a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians and he failed miserably..."

"Jared Kushner belongs to an orthodox Jewish family, so let me tweak my definition of a good negotiator. It must be someone who is truly unbiased."

"Very rich and totally unbiased: in your dreams!"

"Speaking of First Sons in Law our former First Son In Law was in jail for hate speech. I ask you if you go from living in the Prime Minister's House to jail what would you expect? Love?"

"Good point, anyway there is a difference between the US and our former first son in law: Kushner's father in law doesn't give him a stipend every month."

"But he gives him a lot more - an extremely important position in the Cabinet which opens up so much if you know what I mean."

"OK, so there's the balance! Kushner gets a very lucrative and important position in the cabinet and Captain Safdar gets a small stipend."

"Right and what each one gets depends on the First Daughter. Nawaz Sharif gives to Maryam whatever Maryam wants like Ivanka gets from Trump."

"So Captain Safdar's career graph has not followed Kushner's because of his spouse?"

"I reckon you think is The Khan's Ivanka Jehnagir Tareen."

"Absolutely, The Khan doesn't deny him anything and Tareen doesn't deny The Khan anything."

"So who is The Khan's First Son-in-Law?"

"It ain't Shaha Mehmood Qureshi."

"Don't be facetious. Anyway Jehangir Tareen is a good negotiator - he got the traders to call off their strike."

"But it's a three month postponement in implementation of policies that the traders want scrapped and the agreement was less than 24 hours before the government was going to host the Maulanas marchers...."

"Indeed, deals and dheels (latitude)"

"Yes, but no NRO which I presume is for life..."

"Didn't the courts declare the Musharraf Benazir NRO void ab initio?"

"Good point."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019