The judgement by the Election Commission in the reference sent by the National Assembly Speaker about Imran Khan’s non-declaration of assets has been reserved. Everyone seems 5o think that it should lead to his disqualification. So let’s see how the ECP oils out of disqualifying him.
It might not be so easy as the way the Islamabad High Court got out of indicting him, which would have led to his being disqualified, by accepting his promise to apologise to Judge Zeba Chaudhry for threatening her after she gave remand of Shehbaz Gill to the Islamabad Police. I do wonder what will happen when he does apologise to her. I think he should put the incident behind him, especially since Gill is now out on bail. It would have been one for the books if Imran had been disqualified nonetheless.
Imran shouldn’t be so stroppy about apologizing. He should take a leaf out of the book of the late Rana Phool Muhammad, that scrappy backbencher who made a virtue about his lack of formal education,”Say what you want,and then take back your words.” Of course,he was talking about the Punjab Assembly, not the judiciary.
It’s also interesting that Imran can take time out to rail against the expense of Shehbaz going to address the UN General Assembly when the country was suffering from floods. Of course,we all know of his deep concern for the affectees, which he showed by cancelling rallies, and getting his feet wet while visiting the affectees, and making sure that there was real money deposited with the banks after his telethon.
It was also a relief not to be constantly buttonholed and told what a brilliant speech it was. When Imran first went to the UN GA, he was hailed by all as having made a brilliant speech. The problem was, he kept going, and neither the state media nor the PTI trolls could admit his speeches were less brilliant than the first.
I know the floods are being blamed on climate change, but somehow I had expected it to be more dramatic. Y’know, snow in May maybe, leaves falling in August, or heat-waves in December. All that is happening is that the climate stays the same, but the weather grows worse. I mean,these are indeed probably the worst ever floods in our history, but they happened when you normally have flooding. Not of that intensity, of course, bu flooding nonetheless.
We’ve been getting visitors from abroad. First was UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres, then was the actors playing Abdur Rehman Alp in Ertogrul, and then there was Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress. She was also here for the 2005 earthquake. The highlight of that visit was her photoshoot with then PM Shaukat Aziz. There was no photoshoot this time, as the PM was in New York.
Those are not the only visitors. England is here for the first time in 17 years. The captain, Moeen Ali, is the first England captain of Pakistani origin. Nasser Hussain, who captained England at the turn of the century, was half Indian and half English. He was Chennai-born, and thus also qualified for India. At least he was half-English, and took after his mother. Moeen Ali, on the other hand, looks very Pakistani.
FOOTNOTE TO THESE NOTES: Nawaz Alam has passed away. I can’t explain how quiet and efficient a photographer he was. Photographers are the true journalists, I sometimes thought. Many years ago, in the last quarter of the 20th century, he once told me that he took his camera into the john. “If a snake comes out, the News Editor will want a photo.” Ever since, I always made sure I had a pen, just in case I had to make notes.
