“So what do you reckon? Is he sitting on the fence?”
“Who are you referring to? From where I am sitting the entire cabinet is sitting on the fence except three proactive….”
“Which three?”
“The Interior Minister and Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board….”
“That’s one, I mean really! And I would urge you to abandon this practice of referring to three because that presupposes individuals while the correct reference is to the number of hats….”
“Sorry and I agree I mean if one mentions the Deputy Prime Minister the number of hats would be so large that…”
“Yeah he likes to head a lot of committees, including sugar. Anyway I did mean individuals and the other two are Faisal Vawda….”
”I haven’t heard from him since…why a few days ago! But the third man is the Finance Minister – the defender of press releases as opposed to press conference where he may be asked questions and;…”
“Well that’s the entire 57 plus cabinet members preferred way of dealing with the media.”
“Hmmm I guess, but there are those who are accusing the Prime Minister of sitting on the fence with respect to the issue of establishing new provinces or administrative units….”
“That’s simply not possible.”
“Well he hasn’t said a word on the subject….”
“Don’t get side tracked. You know that Shehbaz Sharif has a very bad back so it’s physically impossible for him to sit on a fence. He can get someone to carry a straight backed chair out on the lawn and…”
“Oh you are being facetious.”
“No and that serves another purpose. Those who don’t have a bad back and are co-chairing a meeting with him they too have to sit on a straight backed chair at an angle to him to indicate joint chairmanship….”
“Well I guess you are right there, so the three men you mentioned are not friable.”
“Nope and I hope you don’t mean deep fry them and….”
“Ï am not a chef. I cannot deep fry anything - for me the oil that kinda jumps out of the pan when it’s hot …is,..…”
“A source of deep concern right?”
“Right and perhaps the oil is sizzling out of the pan so you be careful you don’t get burnt.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
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