“Did you hear that The Khan was gifted by some Arab country a necklace, a watch and something I don’t recall and he deposited these gifts in the tosha khana and then bought the three items at 50 percent of their price as determined by the competent committee appointed by the government for valuation of presents received by state functionaries? The rate was 25 percent before The Khan raised it to 50 percent, and then reportedly sold the three items.”

“That is the narrative of the new government, but there was nothing illegal about anything that The Khan did. What’s so funny?”

“That’s the new Pakistan I say, I mean in the old Pakistan you took a commission, or changed the regulatory orders for a day to ensure imports of family and friends duty free entry into the country and the new Pakistan is when you accept gifts, legally buy them at 50 percent of their determined price to sell them in the open market — good profit I say.”

“Well, The Khan made this experiment to see whether the ease of doing business index had improved.”

“And had it?”

“Nope, he reportedly had to go outside the country to sell the items and this was followed by the dismissal of the Board of Investment (BoI) top boss.”

“In the three and a half years we had, I don’t recall, three to four BoI Chair.”

“There you go anyway there is a difference in degree — I mean in commissions you get a percentage of the contract and don’t need any upfront cash, in changing the regulatory order you could make double the profit with respect to others in the field…so let’s say 20 to 25 percent but in the new Pakistan you would make at least 50 percent profit but that would not be corruption or abuse of power.”

“Technically true, anyway speaking of The Khan I was extremely impressed at the press conference of DG ISPR – I mean the guy spoke as a pro…”

“Pro as in professional?”

“Yes and he refuted all The Khan’s claims and yet so politely and effectively — and believably — I mean by accepting that there was interference by the army in the past…”

“I fully agree…that made me listen to the entire press conference…”

“Maybe there is a lesson to be learned — Fawad Chaudhary and Farrukh Habib never reached that level of believability so perhaps they need the same training as DG ISPR and……”

“There is something in the name Babar I say — Major General Babar Iftekhar and then there is Babar Azam…”

“Babar means tiger in Persian and while he was born Zaheeruddin Muhammad chosen by a Sufi saint Khawaja Ahrar yet as his Central Asian Turco-Mongol army reportedly couldn’t pronounce his name so he was referred to as Babar.”

“So let the letter ain (24th letter of the Urdu alphabet) lose its significance and let Imran Khan or Niazi or Ahmed go and get the minions to refer to you as Babar.”

“Babar Azam?”

“Nope, that name is taken.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022