“So is everyone on the same page or not?”
“Talal Chaudhary, rewarded for his loyalty to the Heir Apparent…”
“Who is the heir apparent? The Prime Minister?”
“No the Prime Minister is the regent and the Heir Apparent is the Chief Minister of Punjab, the former is a proxy and the latter is the one who will inherit.”
“Inherit what? Wisdom?”
“You being facetious?”
“No, I want to know. One can inherit looks, physical assets or wisdom.”
“The first two have already been doled out. The last is not a prized commodity. What remains is political inheritance.”
“Right.”
“Anyway, Talal Chaudhary says that as per the agreement PML-N and the PPPP are partners and will remain partners.”
“Junior partners or senior partners?”
“You are being facetious, aren’t you? Partners means partners and while the percentage ownership of each partner is agreed but not released for the likes of us I would assume that at most it is 33 percent each and at least it is around 4 to 5 percent…”
“That’s why the rumour mills are so active.”
“On the percentage ownership…”
“No, they may not have inherited wisdom, but they are not blind – they can understand ground realities. No, what I meant was that there are rumours that Nawaz Sharif and Zardari sahib’s agreement was like the Blair-Brown agreement – each would rule for the same amount of years and…”
“Right; so Bilawal versus Maryam Nawaz…”
“Nope, Bilawal versus the regent.”
“That’s not fair – I mean, one is the undisputed heir and the other…”
“Life isn’t fair - what of the two sons of the Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless…”
“They are neither regents nor Heir Apparent…”
“But…”
“It took Maryam Nawaz over a decade to get where she is today, and this in spite of daddy as the only decision maker.”
“Hmmm and Bilawal took a decade to be groomed…”
“Yep, and as Brutus said about Caesar in Shakespeare’s play: let it be with Caesar.”
“Riiiiight.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025