“I was wondering….”
“Hey, a country’s survival always trumps the economy, so I reckon defence outlay will increase in the forthcoming budget.”
“That’s not what I was wondering about?”
“Oh well the budget will have to be approved by the International Monetary Fund or else all external resource inflows will dry up – rollovers, multilateral and bilateral loans as we need around 19.5 billion dollars for next year to…”
“Nope wasn’t wondering about that either.”
“I saw the Palestinian representative to the Security Council burst into tears…”
“Nope not wondering about that either. I don’t think the US policy is changing anytime soon and without that nothing will change.”
“Shares of the Chinese firm that sold us the planes that downed the French Rafale have risen and I heard their share price is rising so were you wondering if the interest on the Chinese rollovers…”
“Shush, the two transactions are separate.”
“OK I give up what were you wondering about?”
“Who is our first lady?”
“President Zardari has appointed his daughter Assefa as the first lady.”
“Can he do that?”
“Unless you amend the constitution to stipulate that only a wife can be so declared…”
“Right, perhaps they can club that together with the twenty-seventh amendment that reports suggest would change the status of an acting chief justice to a non-acting chief justice.”
“Shut up anyway, by appointing Assefa President Zardari has shown to the uneducated masses that the first lady in Pakistan is not the wife of the prime minister but…”
“Don’t be facetious – the President is not left with many prerogatives after the eighteenth amendment but the prerogative to select his first lady….”
“Hmmmm but seriously the seat of power is with the Prime Minister and…”
“Really? Is that where the seat of power is?”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025