Standstill
Some cronies of The Great Khan were trying to get their work done and came a cropper. They discovered that the federal bureaucracy was in no mood to oblige. Frustrated, they called up a member of The Khan’s inner sanctum and complained that they were being stonewalled by Islamabad’s afsar shahi. The Great Khan’s associate had his own litany of complaints to share with the crony. He said he’d been trying to get certain policies implemented for weeks and had been unsuccessful. The two complainants came to the conclusion that most government work was at a standstill because the bureaucracy had picked up the whiff of change in the air.
Pretenders to the throne
There are so many pretenders to the throne in Islamabad and Lahore, that it’s mind-boggling. More candidates have been added to the list we presented to readers last week. We know that Some Row better than others; there’s A Sad Age who’s forever in line, and of course the Make Doom of Multan, an evergreen candidate. We know have another name for the top slot, and that’s the former head honcho of the Frontier. The latter has found favour with politicos of every stripe for his two basic qualities – he is a consummate politician with a long pedigree, which means that he is not rigid and uncompromising like The Great Khan. Secondly, he has skeletons in his cupboard (apart from his own skeletal figure) which gives everyone a certain comfort level.
Then there’s Takht Lahore for which there are candidates aplenty within The Great Khan’s horde, and the other leading contender is the kinsman of Chory Shuj of Guj. The latter is very vocal these days, olive branch in hand for all members of his electoral college. There are cynics aplenty too who say that there is paralysis at the very top where they can’t live with The Great Khan and can’t live without him either.