CITY NOTES: Racing cars amidst diplomatic failures

Somebody Say it ain’t so! I don’t have any objection to Naeem Bokhari being stayed as PTV chairman, but the reason given was merely to add insult to injury: that the age relaxation given to him was not valid.
Now Naeem is a sort of Peter Pan figure. Who is beyond such mundane things as age, and it is fitting that he be in the PTI, with a leader which is the only sexagenarian who attracts the youth vote.
Naeem, one should remember, is the younger brother of Saleem Altaf, the fast bowler, who was a playing contemporary of Imran’s. In fact, Imran was only picked for his 1971 debut because Saleem was injured. His recovery for the next Test led to Imran being dropped. Well, at least neither Saleem Altaf, nor his kid brother Naeem, was up to the sort of tricks that Test cricketers Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz were up to. The official version is that Shoaib rammed his sports car into a truck when he was leaving the PSL draw. So how did Wahab Riaz get mentioned? Well, it seems that all attempts to excise him from the story cannot hide his having been racing Shoaib in his sports car. Neither was injured, but Shoaib no longer has a sports car.
Speaking of cricket, while Pakistan was losing to New Zealand after suffering a Kane Williamson double hundred, Imran suffered another diplomatic failure when it could not stop India drawing with Australia on a tense final day, so that they go into the final Test with the series 1-1. Well, our boys don’t seem to know whether they’re playing cricket or car racing. Well, I knew every truck driver thought he was actually a Formula One racer, but it seems that cricketers share the impression. Is Imran paying attention? Or is he too busy with the revelations about Nawaz Sharif trying to bribe Broadsheet LLC to drop charges against him? Well, Broadsheet didn’t find anything against him, so the story is confirmed, according to PTI evidentiary standards.
Well, a member of Shehzad Akbar’s team demanded a cut to get the payment it demanded released. Well, the payment has been released. But it seems Shahzad Akbar is going to face nothing. Of course, we all know that anyone suspecting Shehzad Akbar, or any member of his team, is actually suspecting that Imran didn’t build a cancer hospital, and with his own two hands at that.
Well, courts are doing strange things these days. Like a sessions judge ordering that Babar Azam have a rape case registered against him. The Lahore High Court has suspended that order, after Babar Azam claimed he had reached a settlement with the lady back in 2018. Does that make him a challenger for the prime ministership? Not unless he has a daughter he denies. And as important, does Babar eat organic food? The cricketer to watch is the one who knows a lot of Bollywood types.
If that was to happen, Imran might not be able to do what United States President Trump did after losing an election. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. Imran supporters stormed Parliament Building during the dharna. Of course, the supporters were desperate to get to a toilet, while Trump supporters wanted to overthrow the election results. Trump has been impeached. In Pakistan, we made Imran PM.
I suppose it’s something of a coincidence that Mrs Zarin Musharraf, mother of Pervez Musharraf, passed away so soon after Nawaz Sharif’s mother passed away. She was a little luckier, I suppose, for none of her kids was in jail, though one was in exile. She lived to a great age, reaching 100. I know that none of our party leaders has got a mother living, but I’m not sure that’s a reason to make anyone PM.
I’m reminded of the man who confessed to murdering his parents. And then threw himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan.
Imran would probably be happy that Shafqat Mahmood will not be a competitor for the youth vote, because schools have reopened, at least partially. The hopes of being on holiday forever seem to have been dashed. There is some forlorn hope from a ministerial meeting on Friday, but things will really have to be bad for there to be any action.