When you don’t cook anything, you get to eat leftovers. If there are nine leftover meals, it is called a naulakha – a satranga if seven, a panjtara if five. I don’t know why they are always odd numbered. But that investigation is for another day.

It has been reported about Majnu that he was as usual wandering in the desert when he saw 10 people discussing passionately what seemed like a serious matter. He crossed the same route at night and saw them again in the same position. This went on for eight days before he finally went to them and asked what they were so persistently arguing over. They said they were trying to decide who the next governor of Najaf should be. Majnu saw the solution straightaway and duly offered his Laila’s services as the next governor. It appears that what Laila was to the frustrated bunch worried about Najaf, what Mohsin-i-Pakistan Dr Qadeer Khan is to our beleaguered nation faced with the herculean task of determining who the caretaker PM should be. With one difference however: while it was someone else – albeit Majnu – who proposed Laila, the good doctor had to do the recommendation himself. And by way of displaying his political and strategic savvy, he has advised the TTP not to throw their weapons before their talks with the government succeed.

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Haroon Rasheed has met the COAS again. Based on his (Rasheed’s, not COAS’s) analysis, which appeared in his article, he concludes there is an 80 per cent probability of elections taking place on time. This conclusion is apparently based on Kayani's stance on democracy – he believes it is the only way forward. However, Rasheed – ever the careful analyst – still gives a 20 per cent probability to the derailment of the system because he says he could see that all this corruption and ill-governance at times really bothers the sipaah saalar. The chief's unhappiness over corruption is certainly not a good omen, and therefore that 20 per cent is more than justified. What goes in the system's favour though is the fact that Kayani is from Pindi and generals from this region are usually less adventurous (as per past record).

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Ten Sports and PTV are telecasting profile interviews of players in between lunch and tea breaks during the ongoing Pakistan vs. South Africa series. One such interview was Younis Khan's, and it was interesting, to say the least. He said he preferred playing in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand because the pitches there suited him. The thing with Younis is that he is known for a wicked sense of humour, and it is very difficult to be able to say with confidence whether or not any given statement from him was made in earnest.

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I have yet to read the latest literary sensation, General Shahid Aziz's book, but I watched the Hamid Mir show and Mir literally forced the general to say something in support of democracy while he was bashing the army. General saab kept on repeating he doesn't believe in this government either, but Mir didn't let him get into 'khilaafat' which is what it seemed he believes in. While it is very positive the way generals are criticising their own deeds done in the past, it is more than slightly worrisome that we may have generals who believe in things like freemasons, khilaafat, ghazwa-i-hind and the like.

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The Taliban have recently announced that they are willing to hold talks with the government provided Nawaz Sharif, Fazlur Rehman and Munawar Hasan stand as guarantors. It has been discussed how even the Taliban or the army (if they have something to do with this negotiation initiative) don't believe Imran Khan to take a substantial number of seats in the next elections. Apart from that, it seems the Taliban can never feel close to or associate themselves with Khan because of his un-article 62, 63-esque past. There are few things that have a capacity to haunt us more than our own pasts! In a way, the PPP higher ups are facing a similar problem: despite doing everything what many of us believe the army wanted them to do in the last four years or so, they still had to contend with a continuous barrage of memo-gates and Qadris. Life is not fair!

 

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