“I was born and raised in Zaman Park Lahore…”
“So what? We should make you the prime minister? I had heard of mawroosi siyasat (inherited politics) but never locational politics.”
“Don’t be facetious, what I meant was that as a resident of Zaman Park my values should be similar to those of other residents and…wait…let me finish…if someone gave me a gift I was allowed to at best exchange it because I didn’t like the colour or get a different size if that was the issue but selling a gift was considered extremely bad manners.”
“What if you didn’t like a gift?”
“I passed it on to friends who were not friends of the one who gave me the gift, but I never ever sold it?”
“That’s cause you never had the receipt…anyway if you are obliquely referring to The Khan’s sale of gifts he received because you and I made him the prime minister then let me say that his gifts were…were….what is your profession?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Humour me.”
“I am in the real estate business…”
“OK, so the gifts you receive are like leased to you, you have to account for them, but The Khan’s gifts were freehold – he could do with them what he liked and so he sold them.”
“But that’s very embarrassing for the country — that the head of government sold gifts given to him by the heads of other countries?”
“So be happy. The old rich, very rich, men are back in the seat of power? Because they too kept the gifts after paying a nominal sum allowed to them by law that they made, however, they at least kept the gifts…”
“The Khan said his gifts; his choice, besides he used it for some construction or the other in Bani Gala and…”
“Oh Jemima please, please, the entire country begs you to come back!”
“Right, she wouldn’t have allowed it but listen had The Khan then given the entire sum to an orphanage or his panahgahs or the Ehsaas programme…”
“Hmm, isn’t there a hadith which says you should help your poor relatives before being charitable to others and with the construction required at Bani Gala…”
“Don’t be facetious.”
“Remember that The Khan sold the gifts in a foreign country and brought the dollars back officially and then he converted them to rupees and…and…wait he invested them thereby providing jobs which benefitted the economy and…”
“Dear Lord.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022