I am glad that we have stepped back from the abyss, and that we have not been faced with a situation where the controllers had lost control. The incident of the cameras was not so much a violation, as a sign that somebody was worried, that there was a worry that senators would not obey orders like good little boys. That was brought out by the Senate deputy chairman poll, where those who had merely spoilt their ballots went ahead and voted against Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. Well, according to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), two things happened. First, Mian Nawaz came from London to plant the cameras in the polling booth. That should be seen on any CCTV footage that might be visible. Second, those who chose to live by the sword of the secret ballot, also had to die by it. Still, though Yousaf Raza Gillani did not become chairman of the Senate, even though he should have won, the bigger miracle is that he was a member of that august body at all.
The agencies must have had their confidence shaken, not to mention the shattering of their faith in human nature. I mean, what would become of this country if elected people were to make up their own minds? The cameras must be the result of nervousness, an uncertainty among the sensitive agencies, which bodes ill for the future of this country. And the reluctance of the seven who voted for Mirza Muhammad Afridi, to vote against Gillani, bodes ill for the future of the country. I mean, how is Pakistan to combat the machinations of India against Pakistan, if this is the support shown to the righteous by the politicians?
By the way, I wonder if Sanjrani is Waseem Akram-plus-plus, or Waqar Younus-plus? He has got to be virtually as impressive as Usman Buzdar. The two of them show that Imran holds the Baloch in a special place in his heart, for not only is Sanjrani from Balochistan, and while Buzdar is very much from Punjab, he is an ethnic Baloch.
But I wonder if there is much significance in both Sanjranis and Buzdars originating from the Rind tribe. The Father of the Baloch, Mir Chakar Khan Rind, Chakar-e-Azam, is buried in Okara district, at a place called Satgraha. I wonder if Waseem Akram is a Rind of some sort? We have got among them Aftab Baloch, who played for Pakistan, from that ethnicity, though we are only now seeing a blossoming of the Adfridis. There is a strange clannish batting them, for Shahid, the former captain, has engaged is daughter to Shaheen Shah, the current standard bearer of the tribe, and the next garnerer of the youth vote. Of course, as batting goes down the maternal side, if one goes by the example of Inzamam and his sister’s son Imamul Haq or Vic Richardson and his daughter’s sons, the three Chappell brothers, Shaheen Shah’s son is marked out for great things, even before being born.
And what about the Muhammad brothers, whose mother, Amir Bi, had been a badminton champion? The present gerontocratic gatherer of the youth vote, Imran Khan himself, shares this genetic predisposition, for two of his cousins (sons of his mother’s sisters), Javed Burki and Majid Khan, played for Pakistan, and even captained it.
However, while there was the victory of Truth and Righteousness in the Senate, there was mixed news from New York, where there is a sexual harassment scandal surrounding Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had impressed because of his handling of the pandemic there. Imran has sympathy for him, especially since he is not being accused of corruption. Another person who should watch out should be another provincial chief executive praised for handling the pandemic, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah. Imran found him particularly irritating and could leave to get something on him. But sexual harassment? Well, that depends on what strategically and secretly placed cameras have found.
Of course, while the pandemic has raged here, the latest in the saga of the British Royals has been a chapter in the Black Lives Matter movement, where Prince Harry disclosed one of the problems faced by a white man who marries a mixed-race woman. His family asking what colour his child would be. I wonder what the equivalent here is, when someone crosses biradari lines?
