No-shows
Daily Dunya (11 December 2017) reported that the PML-N legislators who had told Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi that they would resign – if Rana Sanaullah did not step down – had gone back on their assurance. The report also cited that, among others, the head of the Sunni Ittehad Council Sahibzada Hamid Raza had claimed that 50 legislators would resign on his indication.
Meera’s linguistic preferences
Reporting on actress Meera’s attitude to language, Daily Dunya (12 December 2017) described it as “Angrezi se tauba” (repentance from English). The report went on to state that she had asked the media to stop poking fun at her, since she hates English (nafrat karti hoon) and that Urdu was her favourite language.
Tick-tock
Daily Express (12 December 2017) noted that the speaker of the Punjab Assembly was awaiting the resignations of legislators, but that they still hadn’t come in.
Sweet deception
According to Daily Express (13 December 2017), the Punjab Food Authority raided a factory producing fake honey using sheera and glucose. The report stated that in an effort to pass off the product as genuine honey, the factory had even set up imitation honeycombs made of Plaster of Paris and Styrofoam.
BJP anxieties
It was reported by Daily Express (15 December 2017) that matters took an unpleasant turn when a scuffle broke out in the Aligarh Municipal Corporation. BJP supporters took offence at a BSP corporator, Musharraf Hussain, who chose to take his oath of office in Urdu.
Ooops!
Captain (R.) Safdar, according to Daily Express (15 December 2017) was fined Rs. 1,000 for using his mobile phone in the courtroom of the Islamabad High Court. He later stated it belonged not to him but to a lawyer.
Marriyum Aurangzeb’s Information
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, according to Daily Nawa-i-Waqt (15 December 2017) claimed that PTI chief Imran Khan was meeting people in the dark of the night through backdoors (chor darwaazay) and that he ought to come clean about it.
On the role of secular people
Daily Nawa-i-Waqt (16 December 2017) quoted the Secretary-General of the Jamaat-e-Islami Liaqat Baloch as saying that secular people and those who are ‘poorly inclined towards religion’ (mazhab se be-zaar) had caused unforgivable harm to the country.
Sheikh Rasheed’s recommendations
The leader of the Awami Muslim League, Sheikh Rasheed, recommended that Imran Khan ought to marry Jemima Goldsmith once again. According to Daily Nawa-i-Waqt (16 December 2017), Sheikh Rasheed went on to opine that Imran Khan’s case had been fought not by any lawyers but by Goldsmith, and that she had thus proved that she was a woman of good background (nasli aur khandani).
Mush’s analysis
General (R.) Pervez Musharraf claimed, according to Daily Nawa-i-Waqt (17 December 2017), that there was no chance of martial law in the country. He went on to say that he looked to the judiciary to send the government home. Further, he observed that the rulers first destroy the country and make the military’s intervention inevitable, and then they call for democracy to be allowed to continue. He also added that the rulers are unfit (na-ehl) and did not know how to carry out governance.
Elimination round?
Daily Nawa-i-Waqt (17 December 2017) quoted the ANP’s Ameer Haider Khan Hoti as saying that now Nawaz Sharif would surely ask about Imran Khan “issay kyoon nahin nikala?” (Why wasn’t he removed?). He went on to claim that the court had sent Jahangir Tareen home, and that his party would send Imran Khan home in the elections.