Indian Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah has been accused by a Canadian minister of being at the top of the trail left by the killer of Canadian citizen Gurdeep Singh Najjar. Well, it makes a certain kind of sense. Najjar was killed, and if the Indian Government was involved, it wouldn’t have done it through the Archaeological Survey of India. It would have used IB. And IB is supervised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Which is where Amit Shah comes in.
Of course, it means that it wasn’t a RAW operation. RAW is controlled directly by the PM’s office. In short, Amit Shah’s boss, Narendra Modi. But the question rises whether Amit Shah would sign off if Modi hadn’t permitted it in a form which could be proven by Shah. No, not videotaped statement while holding that day’s newspaper, but initials on a paper in a file, perhaps. Well, maybe Amit Shah is incredibly stupid.
Another group which might be incredibly stupid is Hezbollah. It named Naeem Qassem to succeed Hasan Nasrllah as Secretry General. Naeem was Deputy SC before the Isrelis bombed Nasrallah dead. Qassem is supposed to be a cleric, but he also holds a masters’ in Chemistry. As soon as he became a Dead Man Walking, like Yahya Sinwar, who replaced Ismail Haniya as Hamas chief after the latter was killed inTehran in July, and was killed in October. Hamas has been leaderless since, or at least has not made its leader known. Oh well, if the Israelis do anything to Qassem, Hezbollah will have only itself to blame.
Another group that is trying to blame one another is the PTI. We’ve got Sher Afzal Marwat saying that Ali Amin Gandapur has not organized effective rallies. Those are the rallies after which he disappeared. Some think he was summoned by the establishment, but personally I think he was indulging in potations which then left him in no condition to hear loud noises. Now was Sher Afzal objecting to the disappearances, or to not Beijing invited to share them? Let me say that I have no knowledge of Sher Afzl’s liver. It is not in contention, as far as I know, for Liver of the Century, for which Ali Amin’s is well in the lead, ahead even of Sharjeel Memon’s.
Bangladesh got pounded into the ground by South Africa, which beat them at home 2-0. The second Test they lost by an innings. That’s about par, but Bangladesh were getting ideas above themselves after beating Pakistan 2-0 while visiting.
But that’s not why the South African Test Player of the 1990s and Pakistan’s white-ball coach, resigned. He did so because the new white-ball captain was picked without asking him. Perhaps more importantly, he was left flabbergasted by the decision to leave out Azam Khan.
If Rizwan keeps, Azam Khan can field, and vice versa. Either way, he would be of great help to the bowlers, who would get a roller on the field every time the field crossed over.
I hear Azam Khan is now at the National Cricket Academy, where they’ve got him doing exercises and put him on a diet of salads. The faculty there will count it a success when he sees his toes. It will be the first time in years.
Speaking of cricket, one ends up speaking about the PTI, which seems to have decided that it will join the JCP, even though that might lead to their having to be in the same room as corrupt elements. I suppose there was no way a party so dominated by lawyers would give up the chance of naming judges.
Or is it the chance of staying in Islamabad? It’s better than coming to Lahore, where the air quality index has hit 1067. It came down, but it’s going to go back up. Has the Diwali smoke now hit us? Maybe we can do something about East Punjabi farmers burning their summer top stubble, but can we stop them celebrating Diwali?
