CITY NOTES: Boxing lessons for seamen

The Cabinet recently decided not to allow PTV to get its feed of the matches with England during the tour there from an Indian broadcaster. Obviously the Cabinet has not heard of geoeconomics. I don’t know whether it can play any role in the footage of Dr Firdous Ashiq Awam, which the WWF wants to an unlimited extent. Negotiations are going on with her boss, Punjab CM Usman Buzdar, but he is not an honest broker, and his own attempts to his footage taken are not helping. While the WWF acknowledges that Buzdar is Dr Awan’s boss, and she probably picked up some of the finer points of the noble art from him, the WWF has not seen him in action.
On the other hand, Abdul Qadir Mandokhail has been a target, and has been left wondering whether he got into politics to get beaten up. That sort of thing was supposed to happen in Taiwanese assemblies, not here.
Dr Awan would be a terror for patients. Imagine going to her with a headache. And then she might attempt to treat it without painkillers. Well, she’s probably a good anesthetist: sock ‘im in the jaw, and he’s out like a light.
Well, it’s now obvious that the AC Sialkot didn’t walk away from Dr Awan’ dressing down in a Ramzan bazaar because she was concerned for her dignity, as for her bones. Imran Khan’s getting rid of her begins to make sense. During the PPP government, she was Information Minster, and before that Minister for Population Welfare. Under her as minister, journalists didn’t disappear. They were kept in line by fear of her. Mandokhail should think himself lucky. She could have sat on him.
Her leader, Imran Khan, must have also noticed how the PSL has resumed, true, but with the day/night match being played so late by our time that no one knows the result even after watching. Sleepiness makes us feel we’ve gone ten rounds with Dr Awan, so forgive us for being punch drunk.
But Imran doesn’t face the difficulties that COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa does. It seems that the Central Asian Republics don’t know the difference between the Army and the rest, and keep sending him Navy men. First, he had to meet the Tadzhik President, Imomali Rahmon, who had dome his (Soviet-era compulsory) military service in the Soviet Navy. And next he had to entertain the Azeri Naval chief, a rear-admiral. Azerbaijan has a Navy because it has a Black Sea coast, but that is why it has one frigate, one ex-US Coast Guard cutter, and a number of patrol boats. Azerbaijan did have a vice-admiral as naval chief, but he was arrested for theft, fraud and embezzlement when the Defence Minister changed. Try and imagine a peon getting slapped on the wrist if Pervez Khattak gets changed.
I wonder how the COAS got on with Rear-Admiral Subhan Bekirov. Maybe they talked about the six landing craft the Azeri Navy possessses. They are meant for naval infantry, or marines, of which we have got some, but no landing craft. Of course, getting the landing craft here would be headache. Not only would the Azeri Navy have to get to the Suez Canal via the Mediterranean, but then there would the journey across the Persian Gulf, and then what? A violation of the principles of geoeconomics?
Of course, Imran should pay attention to what happened to Emanuel Macron. The French rival to Dr Awan was a white supremacist. White supremacists are not nice people. Look at what they did to a Pakistani family in Canada. Imran has said that somebody should stop the hate speech which incites violence among them.
What about the hate speech that is being used against the corrupt here? Hatred of corruption has reached the point where people get hit. Are we supposed to wait until somebody gets killed on a talk show? The government would be at an advantage, because its spokesmen would get the gun licenses necessary. And if TV anchors put their foot down, there’ll always be the option of running over the other guy, like they seem to do in Canada.
And then there was the train accident near Ghotki, and for once, Sh Rahid was not at fault. This time, it was Azam Swati who was supposed to do the decent thing and resign as Railways Minister. But he didn’t. Instead, he asked for Rs620 billion for upgradation of Railways. Even Sh Rashid never thought of asking for money after a railways disaster. He just didn’t resign.