“Did you know about the President and Prime Minister meeting?”
“Of course, it was the major news item and….”
“Did you notice anything?”
“Protocol was followed – there were two chairs titled towards each other clearly and unambiguously accepting that the President and the Prime Minister were chairing the meeting.”
“Yes and their selected party loyalists were seated on the side of their leader’s chair.”
“The PML-N leadership remains with Mian sahib?”
“Agreed anyway we had Sharjeel Memon, a Sindh government official seated there while Kundi sahib, who had been salivating at the possibility of Governor’s rule, was not there.”
“I heard Bilawal Bhutto Zardari gave Kundi a dressing down.”
“Kundi sahib does dress up doesn’t he? And then there is the matter of extremely carefully coifed hair and…”
“Dressing down has nothing to do with dressing, it means scolding.”
“Oh sorry anyway I noticed that the Interior Minister was sitting on the side of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party loyalists.”
“He is a neutral – the two men chairing the meeting supported his candidacy to parliament and cabinet.”
“Neutral as in Switzerland or neutral as in The Man Who Must Remain Nameless, Voiceless and Faceless…”
”You never do know when to stop! Anyway there could be two other reasons for Naqvi sahib’s placement - do you want to guess?”
“I heard from extremely well informed sources that the Deputy Prime Minister suggested the number of their party loyalists that would attend the meeting which left no chair empty for the Interior Minister.”
Right I heard the Deputy is not very happy with the interior Minister because the guy does not extend protocol to him as the Deputy Prime Minister.”
“That’s true the Interior Minister has yet to agree to the Deputy Prime Minister chairing any committee associated with his ministry, unlike other cabinet members - the Deputy sits on the sugar committee, the textile committee, the petroleum…”
“Don’t forget the Interior Minister has taken the lead role in the Foreign Ministry.”
“But I heard that after his stint in Musharraf’s jail the Deputy is kinda cautious…”
“As he should be, so back to the question: why did the Interior Minister sit on the side of the Peoples Party delegates?”
“By chance, once the League delegation sat down - the guests - the only empty chair was on the PPP side of the room and as we all know the waderas are very hospitable to their guests…”
“Right, right.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026