PARTLY FACETIOUS: Our bureaucrats dress better than our politicians

“I remember the sayings of the wise man!”

“Who? Jinnah the father of our nation said to the civil servants that you have to do your duty as servants; you are not concerned with this or that political party that is not your business. It is a business of politicians to fight out their case under the present constitution or the future constitution that may be ultimately framed, you, therefore, have nothing to do with this party or that party. You are civil servants.”

“Our civil servants have taken on a new and improved role, they are more educated than our politicians, they dress better than our politicians, they…”

“But they, like our party leaders sport resident permits of other countries, have assets stashed…”

“For Pete’s sake, get with the ground realities. Anyway, you reckon Jinnah would have endorsed the twenty-sixth amendment to the constitution?”

“It may not have been formulated if he were alive but once passed by parliament I am confident that Jinnah would have abided by it unless of course a two-third majority had voted it…”

“Ah indeed, but Jinnah was not the wise man I was referring to?”

“Oh Iqbal said…”

“Nope.”

“OK, give me a hint: is it a Pakistani passport holder or…”

“Yes, and I don’t think you will be able to guess. I was referring to the famous saying – a degree is a degree, whether it is fake or not.”

“That guy has not been in the public eye for a long time, what made you think of him.”

“Well, if substitute the word deal for degree, then…”

“Careful be careful.”

“No, Pakistan has got a deal with the US and though I haven’t seen the deal itself – I am not sure that the 29 percent tariffs announced by President Trump are…”

“Aurangzeb did a Hafeez Sheikh.”

“Well for your information there has been no mention of tariffs, and how much of tariff-free US goods are going to be allowed into the country and given our rather measly trade surplus with the US, about I reckon 2 billion dollars…”

“A US oil company, yet to be identified, will come and invest here and…”

“Not to develop rare earths?”

“No and when I said Aurangzeb did a Sheikh I meant he magnanimously and appropriately thanked all the Pakistani officials who helped in the deal making, remember Sheikh thanked his official driver for his contribution to the budget of that year in the budget speech and…”

“Great men think alike, I guess.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025