“Who do you reckon is the most popular Pakistani?”
“In the world or in Pakistan?”
“Should be the same individual don’t you think!”
“Not in the Land of the Pure.”
“Explain.”
“Well, Malala Yousafzai is the most well-known and popular Pakistani outside Pakistan. She can get an appointment with Antony Blinken in the blink of an eye and we have Pir Sahib Shah Mehmood and his understudy Moeed Yousaf who struggle to meet junior officers in the State Department and their success, or its lack thereof, is apparent to all. And there is Shafqat Mahmood unable to do one-tenth of what Malala may have succeeded in doing for girls’ education in Pakistan through external support…”
“The Khan ain’t gonna change either Shah Mahmood or Shafqat Mahmood come what may.”
“The tale of the two Mahmoods hunh!”
“Indeed, and one Moeed… The Khan is well known too isn’t he, I mean his stint in cricket and as prime minister…”
“People have limited memories so the new generation in the West has not seen him play cricket and so is not really aware of his cricket career, but they heard his geographical errors and responsibility for rape and…”
“But he is the most popular guy in Pakistan right?”
“That’s what he reckons but today I would beg to differ.”
“If you are referring to the Amnesty survey I would not take it seriously – I mean what’s in a survey – a sample size of around a 100 which is not likely to be representative and…”
“The Khan used to cite surveys when out of power.”
“Duh – read my lips – he is in power.”
“Right, anyway I reckon the most popular guy today is Babar Azam.”
“What’s with him? I mean I keep waiting for the team to collapse, we the Pakistani public are trained to expect a collapse and there is no collapse and even if there is the team quickly recovers – I mean this is just too much. This is not to be a Pakistani team captain.”
“The Khan was like that too but I agree memories are short which is why The Khan keeps referring to his cricketing days and his media team constantly shows footage of Pakistan’s victory in 1992 and…”
“Right, but the youth who swept him to power did not vote for him on his cricket career.”
“The next election slogan for The Khan must be: Don’t worry, cricket is sorted out and so will everything else…”
“Hmmmmm.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021