My Dynasty, Not Yours

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz’s absence during party meetings presided over by party supremo Nawaz Sharif from London via video link has been troubling party vice-president Maryam Nawaz volumes.

Despite that her father’s current time zone being four hours behind hers, she is on FaceTime again.

“Papa, do you see the Model Town Dynasty…”

“My doll, yes, but please call them the ones that hold court in 180-181-H, Model Town, Lahore. Model Town is not theirs…I am the one who founded Model Town’s Nawaz Sharif Park…”

“OK, I am sorry Papa… thanks for correcting me. This, I mean Model… 180-181 H dynasty is trying to replace us as the rulers of Lahore, nay Punjab, nay Pakistan…”

“My doll, come closer up…”

“O, you mean closer to the tigers…”

“Uff, uff, how times should I tell you that tigers are in Bengal… now called Bangladesh. Now remember the spelling… L.I.O.N…like in ‘Nawaz Sharif, the Lion of Punjab in Avenfield of London… So, you were telling me something about challengers to the real dynasty…”

“Yes, you know the act being put by Uncle Shehbaz is damaging… You know this son of the man whom you made governor of Punjab… [energy minister] Hammad Azhar is going around and tattling that family-owned political parties are so superficial…”

“No, my doll, what family-owned! It is not family-owned Ittifaq Foundry… immediately hold a press conference that it is PML-N, which means Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz…”

“Papa, this boy, Hammad is making fun that… I mean, he has the temerity of calling our great leaders, minions… he is saying that they are left clueless and irrelevant, thinking which side will eventually win. You know when the 180-181 H group are harassing our life-long loyal, Javed Latif…

“He spoke the truth about Uncle Shehbaz and now he wants to issue him a notice for violating the party discipline…”

“My doll, I stopped any action against… and what is ‘party discipline’… it is PML-N… N… so what I say is party discipline…”

“And Papa, me too…”

“Yes, yes, my doll…”

“Papa, you know that he [Latif] come close to me after going to jail… you know he was locked up for inciting people against the state institutions.”

“Yes, yes… What a man. what a L..I.O.N….”

“Papa, all the stars are with me… Pervaiz Rashid, [general secretary] Ahsan Iqbal, [Punjab president] Rana Sanaullah, Khurram Dastgir, Awais Leghari and Azma Bokhari. Papa, you know how some people flock to Gate 4 of ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] office… Javed just disrobed them. He said some people… you know whom he means… have been given the assignment to distort our policy toward this Imran Khan machine… this electronic voting… He said whenever the anti-government campaign reaches a decisive phase, one of them tries to defuse it. Those on this scheme are the ones who are talking about reconciliation. You know, being an experienced person, he did not give any names, but the message was clear when he said, a seasoned leader damages our narrative… and we all know that this is not possible without an assignment from the Establishment. You rightly called him a li… I mean, L..I.O.N… Did you see on TV, he said his party would not say Pakistan Khappay (Long Live Pakistan) if anything happened to me. He made it clear that these leaders, the ones going against me, must remember Chaudhry Nisar’s fate.”

“My doll… have never trusted this Nisar, since I heard Imran Khan saying in the National Assembly that he is his old friend, and he came to receive him when he came home with [1992] World Cup…

“Indeed, my doll, Javid Latif is far more loyal than anyone else who eats our qeemay wali naan and drinks our khoya lassi.”

“Of course, Papa, of course… Even, Uncle Shehbaz’s spokesperson Malik Ahmad Khan told Dawn newspaper that Javed has violated the party discipline, adding that, whom he calls, party president [Shehbaz] has taken a serious note of his uncalled-for comments and, also claimed that he empowered to issue a notice to him (Latif).

“You know, Papa, it is time to stamp out pretenders to the throne. You know things have come to a tipping point… a point of no return. The old saying that two swords cannot live in a scabbard… you are only sword… the only li… I mean L.I.O.N… Only if my nephews, [Hussain Sharif’s sons] Zakariya and Zayd don’t opt to lead our dynasty, you have your grandson, my son, Junaid.”

“Yes, yes, my doll, yes… you know Imran Khan is not letting Shehbaz come to London… otherwise, I would have twisted his ears hard and made it clear to him that it is my dynasty, not yours…”

“Papa, you could do that through artificial intelligence… which they call AI… the one Israel used for killing the Iranian nuclear scientist…you know the Israeli embassy is located on Kensington Palace Gardens near the junction with Kensington High Street… just 15 minutes from you [Avenfield].”

“My doll, you are a gem! Great thinker!”