"I was wondering..."

"Yes the character of Broadsheet's Chief Executive Officer, Moussavi, an Iranian-born, and more particularly the organization's performance...."

"The fact remains that the Broadsheet, an asset recovery firm, won nearly 29 million dollars from the Pakistani tax payers and...."

"Yes it won the case but one needs to be reminded that the company is registered in the Isle of Man.... or should I say was registered there and need I say more."

"Yes you need to say more - British law journals have noted two elements of the decision - (i) that the Tribunal found that the National Accountability Bureau unlawfully terminated the contract with Broadsheet (I think in 2003) and failed to assist Broadsheet, as required under the contract, and impermissibly entered into settlements with individuals that deprived the petitioner of the fee; and the (ii) commercial court dismissed a challenge to an arbitral award for serious irregularity holding that inadequate reasons in an award cannot amount to a serious irregularity under a section of the English Arbitration Act.

"Too much legalese but this is before the 2016 Panama papers revelations..."

"Right but essentially what I have seen in British based legal papers is and I quote again the award did not explain how the lost commission had been valued or what discount had been applied to reflect the chance that it might not have become payable."

"Hmmm and meanwhile our second, and Uzma Bukhari and Maryam Aurangzeb are certainly second tier, and third or is it fourth tier leadership or no tier at all and I am referring to Shahzad Akbar, have begun to hurl accusations against each other tinged with personal insults giving rise to at least a defamation notice by Akbar...."

"Considering that defamation cases go nowhere in this country..."

"Right anyway that's not what I was wondering about....see Trump has been..."

"Wonder no more he was impeached you know."

"Yes I know but..."

"And that is largely symbolic cause he is out on 20 January and had our courts given the verdict against those who stormed the supreme court, Sharif was implicated though Mushahid Hussain was in the forefront of the charge, this broadsheet would never have happened."

"Mushahid is in the senate and he would have been out of politics..."

"I doubt it - he has shown a great aptitude to succeed in getting out of one party and into another to retain his senate seat but anyway had the storming of the Supreme Court led to the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif for life we would not have paid Broadsheet..."

"Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for life in 2017 but he remains the power in PML-N so your analysis is not right."

"Oh well anyway you side tracked me, I was wondering whether Trump would be allowed to do the usual that an outgoing US president does - you know setting up a library, writing a book and...."

"Let's put it this way Trump would prefer a hotel rather than a library and he may have to go out of the country to do so...."

"If he leaves the US that would remind me a bit of Nawaz Sharif - doing politics from outside the country!"

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021