Everlasting regret
After the outpouring of sympathy for The Man of Steel and his family, following his wife’s demise in London, it was hoped that the prisoners would get a reprieve from jail and be allowed to grieve with friends and family at home in Lahore. But it was not to be.
We hear The Man is housed in one room of a six room barracks at Adiala Jail. All the other rooms are empty. His son-in-law is housed in barracks across the courtyard but there is a blank wall in between so that they cannot see each other or communicate with each other. The Man’s daughter is housed in a separate barracks at some distance from her father and husband. They are allowed to meet once a week, on Thursdays.
For the record, The Man and his daughter refused to apply for parole when they heard of Begum Sahiba’s demise and finally The Man’s Bro signed the application. They lamented the fact that when, a few weeks ago, they had spoken to Begum Sahiba and she had asked to see them, they were denied parole. That was their last chance of seeing her, before she slipped into unconsciousness. The Man of Steel spoke about his everlasting regret at not being by her side when she needed him most.
Pens down
When officers of the realm refused to work, or went on strike, it used to be called a “pens down” action. Something similar is happening amongst the higher echelons of our afsarshahi these days. We hear high officials are refusing to append their signatures to documents, fearing the fate of their fellows who did the needful for the previous government, and ended up falling foul of the law, such as it is. Rumour has it that many officers have asked for the files to be vetted by the Fed’s Investigators or the NABbers before being given to them for the okay. We hear some officials have gone so far as to ask the Feds and the NABbers to sign off first, in order to get them to do the needful. The mantra doing the rounds goes thus: “We won’t sign, if they don’t”.