The Grapevine September 2014

The disappearance of Shahbaz Sharif from the thick of the drama unfolding in Islamabad has raised a few eyebrows. Apparently, in a meeting between senior PMLN members and prominent media personalities, Talat Hussain heavily criticized the government’s role in the Model Town incident, and Shahbaz took it as a personal affront, commenced on a long rant, vented spiel against some of his own party members and walked out. We don’t know if he had his sleeves rolled up while doing this.

A certain retired Vice Air Marshal, Shahid Latif, frequently appears on television these days as a ‘difayi tajziakaar’, but it turns out that he’s more of a ‘hawai tajziakaar’. A self-proclaimed and self-imposed liaison between Aabpara and Tahir-ul-Qadri, and someone who’s been going around telling PAT members that the police is all they need to worry about, he will keep the army on their side, he has been badly exposed after ISPR and military sources denied having affiliations with the man. So much for that.

When pressure was building over resignations from the PMLN leadership, Nawaz put the notion forward to Shahbaz that maybe he should take one for the team and step down, but Hamza Shahbaz interjected and summarily rejected the idea saying that they are always the ones who sacrifice, not this time. Baghi in training?

A little bird tells us that the daily supply of cocaine making it’s way to the Azadi container comes to 1 lakh rupees, on average. We are sure that the dealer will be the richest man in Islamabad if this protest goes on for another twenty days. At least the PTI leadership can’t be blamed for flying high.