"I am not sure which ministries are under lockdown."

"Lockdown defined as what?"

"Well, staff is not coming to office and the Minister has gone into self-isolation or at least no longer visible on television though there is no curfew here so they can move around I guess..."

"In other words, lockdown a la Murad Ali Shah instead of lockdown a la National Control and Command Centre."

"Don't be facetious - you know Murad Ali Shah is focused on stopping the spread of the virus while the Prime Minister is focused on ensuring that no one dies of hunger..."

"So I guess their performance rating would depend on the number of deaths from the virus and...and ...can we say versus the number of deaths from hunger?"

"No, you can't, because neither data is available - the spread of the virus cannot be determined with only some 33,000 tests done so far in the entire country and the numbers dying of hunger is again a statistic that is extremely challenging to come up with but meanwhile..."

"Meanwhile some federal ministers have not been seen since the onset of the pandemic. No Minister for Human Rights, no Container Shah, no Pervez Khattak, no Minister for aviation as the advisor is briefing the media, then there is no Tariq Basheer Cheema, and where in the world is Gandapur, then there is no sighting of Zartaj Gul, no sighting of Shahryar Khan Afridi, no sighting of..."

"Hey, most of these absentees are in the high risk categories, you know their age is..."

"Afridi and Gandapur are not over 60, are they?"

"The point is all in the perception - these two may feel that they are high risk."

"I guess so, anyway are these guys drawing their ministerial salaries?"

"The Khan is not big on foregoing salaries, his household runs on his salary..."

"So just sale of the water buffaloes and the cars of the PM House and since they are all sold he cannot resell them if you know what I mean."

"You are being facetious but anyway Sindh is in a curfew of sorts since the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for opening some industries are too prohibitive for the industries to begin operations while those provinces under the direct control of The Khan are following his instructions..."

"His instruction? Or his definition?"

"What's the difference?"

"Instructions are unclear as it leaves the prerogative of establishing some SOPs to the provincial governments while definitions are rather explicit by now."

"And the Buzz will be able to defy the PM's instructions, or definition?"

"Nope. And the KPK government also not because on the wings are contenders for all major posts in the province."

"Wings or bam bang the pistol is on the temple of..."

"Ha ha, that's right."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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