Gharib Awam and nouveau riche both have houses and lands at least. It’s the middle class like me (most rent but have disposable income to pay for the bills) who may suffer. So do patients and credit card holders (I mean robbing Peter to pay Paul’s sins) no?
IRSHAD SALIM – The gharib awam (poor man) as a percentage has more net worth (stranded) than the middle class abroad. Why? For sustained lack of education, these individuals don’t have gainful employment and thus do not have enough disposable income, unlike the poor and the middle class abroad- majority of them don’t have a “fully paid (in cash)” home either. Ironically, majority of us do sans education among the ‘gharib awam’ and the nouveau riche.
And Mr. Imran Khan having chosen to graduate from a demolition man to a firefighter finds himself in a situation now- there’s hardly any money to fund his ‘Madinah’ vision- promises to focus on education, health care and a welfare state. And it’s all his fault that he’s not being a good firefighter either as the hose is empty.
The hydrant carries low pressure. And the neighbors (nouveau riche) aren’t a help either. They’re the real grim reapers though.
Khan Sahib (Mr. Khan) was nasty with the bad guys, calling them ugly. So the solution? Rob Peter to pay Paul, and the water tanker too, to hose down the raging fire. And that takes time no?
But the gharib awam (poor masses) can’t wait.
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And it’s all his fault that he’s becoming a loner too. Honesty and character and courage don’t pay (Trump, Putin, Modi etc etc). He’s a dreamer and a hard worker but not a son of a gun… Damn it. Therefore, the call and the murmur for the party to go on and replace him with a crook who can be crooked. Becoming a Tipu Sultan (TS) or an Alan Greenspan (AG) could be two other choices. He choose the 3rd.
What’s wrong with that? Even though he invoked TS (that was a sniper for digital disruption meant to sharpen his mind and skill amid cyber battle his nemesis relishes).
A Deal with the devil is something we always have loved to do. So Khan Sahib is thinking out of the box rather than being creative like John Gotti!
He can’t be Gotti nor creative. Out of the box is morally passable.
Nevertheless, times up for the broken nosed one’s and the nouveau riche. The State is stoic about it. Khan Sahib do too. The broken noses et al call it ‘the nexus’.
The tussle between good and bad can’t be an SOS (Save our Soul) to the ugly.
That’s a no no on the dinner table now. Look around.
The devil got cheated by those (governments) brought into power. It now wants a straight guy he can trust. So I’m willing to wait, as being a middle class, I’m working to save and earn and prudently spend my disposable income rather than go for spin and chill.
Conditions imposed under a $6 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Khan Sahib’s government could upend the promises he made. But survival comes first no?- before economic hitmen succeed.
I’m willing to wait and be on the right side. Why? Bhutto got me decades ago with his ‘thousand year struggle eating grass’. Khan Sahib sounded more pragmatic: ‘Difficult times are ahead because of huge loans taken in the past’, he said. He called a spade a spade, just as my doctor told me back in 1999. No bluffs, no spin. I continue to kick dust.
PS: Gharib Awam and nouveau riche both have houses and lands at least. It’s the middle class like me (most rent but have disposable income to pay for the bills) who may suffer. So do patients and credit card holders
(I mean robbing Peter to pay Paul’s sins) no?
(The writer is a business consultant, analyst and Editor-in-Chief of PKonweb and DesPardes–presently based in Islamabad)
