Back in the day
Reporting as received from a reader of The Friday Times: “Back in the day, July 2009, the then premiers of India and Pakistan met in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al Sheikh, to douse the furious fires created by the terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008. PM Yusuf Raza Gilani offered his condolences to his Indian counterpart, Sardar Manmohan Singh. Mr Singh responded with this Urdu couplet:
Voh vaqt bhi dekha hai tareekh ki aankhon nay,
Lamhon nay khata ki, sadiyon nay saza payee.”
(History is witness to the time,
When brief blunders caused a suffering of centuries.)
Bad taste
The way that The Man of Steel’s daughter was arrested recently on her prison visit to him has left a bad taste. Eyewitnesses say she was sitting with her father when she was called out to another room, and told that she was under arrest. She said she wanted to go back to her father, her son and her 14-year-old daughter to tell them that she was going to be detained. The officials demurred, saying they were under orders to apprehend her there and then. She insisted, jokingly saying, “don’t worry, I won’t run away from Abu’s meeting room!” She was then allowed to go and break the news to her family.
Deafening silence
Our mole reports that our princely brethren are miffed at The Great Khan’s comments about Iran during his US tour, and that is one of the reasons for their deafening silence on the Indian annexation of Kashmir. In one of his more sensible utterances, whilst speaking at a DC think tank, The Khan warned the US not to attack Iran. He said the world would forget the conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan because the Shia have a culture of martyrdom and this would entail grave consequences for the region and the world.