The Grapevine August 2014

Nawaz Sharif publicly stated that he wouldn't take a special plane to Saudi Arabia for his Umra, choosing to fly PIA instead like a normal citizen. But the flight was anything but normal; for security reasons 240 booked people were dropped from the 300 capacity seat plane. H should have just taken the special flight then, would have been less of an inconvenience for passengers and airline alike

A while ago, Chaudhry Nisar was upset with his party and 45 MNAs from the PML-N went to talk him into appeasement. Apparently, Nisar mentioned Khwaja Asif a lot, and offered a bit of backhanded taunting about him going to an army general with his wife to apologize for everything that had happened earlier in the year, after having been so vocal against the security establishment.

Special assistant to the PM, Tariq Fatemi, is in the US ostensibly to talk about resuming strategic dialogue with America, but sources say what he's really there for is to get an appointment for Nawaz with President Obama, around the time of his Semptember trip to the UN Assembly. Nawaz hopes a meeting with Obama can coincide with other heads of state like Modi, who are also meeting with the US President.

After politicians and media houses, judges are now also swept up in revolution turmoil and Imran Khan's million march. Tasadduq Hussain Jillani, who recently retired as the CJP, has been heard asking at social gatherings what the people think about the army these days, and what is expected from the judiciary if another martial law is imposed.