Finance Minister Ishaq Dar claims former principle secretary Azam Khan has admitted to have handed over cypher copy to Imran Khan.

[What all you have admitted to against Nawaz Sharif...but that doesn't matter right!]

Between the lines...

I find it very interesting reading the news from the headlines and quite often it is hilariously funny. I will try and sample some every day for your reading pleasure - Ed.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that Pakistan would rather play the role of a bridge between China and the United States...

[He wants to play both sides against each other?]

[Maryam Nawaz] Demands formation of "high-powered JIT" comprising ministers, ISI and law ministry officials to probe Imran's alleged audio leak.

[So the very same people, usual suspects, who recorded and leaked the audio?]

Another General bites the dust; courtesy Asif Ali Zardari

I stay on the side lines when it comes to politics or political analysis of any sort. It has been a good few decades when I was a journalist in my homeland, Pakistan. I do read the press at times and some social media gets Whatsapped to me. One day, the journalistic curiosity got to me. I wanted to get to the bottom of it all. I gave it a good few days to bring myself up to speed. This may all be my figment of imagination. Humour me any ways. 

Everyone is looking towards the good General Bajwa to steer the country out of the chaos that he himself engineered in the first place. Or he thought he did. He was played like a guitar. He had the misplaced confidence, like all generals before him, that he will put the house back in order and the nation will thank him as the saviour if not a hero. He thought wrong. Pakistan Army has a direct line to the Pentagon and Pentagon takes instructions from the White House. Pakistan has a civilian government that is put in place by the Army or the establishment as it likes to be referred as. The chief of Pakistan Army's is always hand picked by the American administration. No, not Pentagon but the people in the White House. 

I shall fast forward to Asif Ali Zardari. He is co-chairman with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, of Pakistan People Party. He has Hussain Haqqani, the ex-Ambassador of Pakistan, in Washington DC on his speed dial. Asif Ali Zardari, unlike Nawaz Sharif and the other Sharifs of his family, spares no expense on positioning Bhutto as the future Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is one up on the good General who all along thought that it was him who Washington will turn to, to deliver. His shelf life as a General is fast approaching sell-by date so the US admin is not putting too much stock in him, 

As things stand, the general has been asked to stand down. Zardari is the goto man for the White House. His son has been moved around in world capitals under the guise of diplomacy since he was sworn in as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Zardari knows that Bilawal is only safe if he is out of Pakistan. While General Bajwa is facing the music and everyone is blaming him for all the ills of the nation and expecting him to get Pakistan into General Elections. They can't be more wrong. He is toothless and is bidding his time for a safe passage out of Pakistan in his twilight years. Not just the aces but Zardari is holding the entire deck of cards and sitting put in his palatial homes every where.

This story will have a familiar end, that of General Musharraf. One more general will bite the dust. Bravo Zardari.

Life never stops surprising you. Ever.

My life is no different than anyone else. Normal. Non-eventful. It revolves around my work. Nothing more can be said about it. I have seen most of my life gone past my eyes and it has at best been 'unremarkable'. 

Surprise is essentially when change or new unforeseeable things simply ignore you and instead happens to everyone around you. However, that is not how life deals you a hand. It looks you in the eyes when you least expect it - wrong time and wrong place. Next, it delivers that surprise. In short, when you are least prepared for it. Well, it won't be a surprise if you were. Would it!

It turns and leaves you just as fast. Now you are left to wonder the rest of your life why it all happened. You cannot make head and tale of it but it still is heads you lose and tale you didn't win. If you feel that you are alone. Think again. Everyone is treated the same. It is a lose-lose situation. Why? Timing is wrong. You can't do anything about it. You wished it happened a long time back in your life. 

Surprised? That's life.

پھر چراغِ لالہ سے روشن ہوئے کوہ و دمن
مجھ کو پھر نغموں پہ اکسانے لگا مرغِ چمن

I have never needed much inspiration to write anything but Iqbal doesn’t take no for an answer. His work jumps off the page and hits you where and when you are most vulnerable. I didn’t see it coming. He got me when my guards were down and I was in a state of bliss. Well, the operative line in the verse is مجھ کو پھر نغموں پہ اکسانے لگا مرغِ چمن

Having lived life mostly on my own terms and never regretting what all I gained or lost, I feel we all go through life without ever living in the moment. However, if you ever get to live the moment, the experience is surreal: Indescribable, feeling of weightlessness and like you don’t ever want to wake up.

 یہ خوشی پل دو پل ٖہی سہی 

مجھ کو پہر امید دلا دیتی ہے

ناکوئ منزل ناکسی ساحل کئ تلاش

پھر بھی رہ  رہ کے ہنسا دیتی ہے

More of less or less of more?

Someone went through my writing here and said, “ Perhaps you really should write more. The topics you covered aren’t easy to express fully in short form.” 

This got me thinking. It was similar a predicament to me as ‘to be or not to be’.  I am no Shakespeare. By the same token he was not me. I am a product of my environment and his was so different from now. We are choking on how much more is written about absolutely non-consequential or simply nothings and most come with visuals and sound. At the same time, concentration spans have been reduced to a blip in the ocean of time. Like tons of plastic waste inside marine animals we have been fed such fluff that we all have much of that inside us. Our ideas, values and aesthetics are all more animal like. We are technically reduced back to rudimentary Homo sapiens and not much evolved human kind. 

When it comes to writing I fight to keep my focus laser sharp much like ‘see no evil and hear no evil’. My topics are my choosing. Beyond that I chose fewer words for a quick trip across the mind of the reader to leave the essence of my thought process behind - nothing more. You decide: Less is more or more is less! 

One more Bismillah near you -- in 7 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, Singapore 081007

We have one new Bismillah Biryani in Tanjong Pagar now. And you can order your food at home and office through our delivery partners. You can get the names of our delivery partners and menu, prices etc or location of all our outlets on our Facebook page. Please visit
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Just to remind you all that we now exact have same preparation at every outlet - meaning, great tasting biryani.  In other words, the entire thing is made and sent to each outlet and simply 'dummed' there at the point-of-sale in exact same digital ovens. So it is from the same team in Little India that prepares the biryani wherever it is sold in our network. This is also true for our Haleem, Nihari, Korma, Paya and, of course, samosas and kebabs.

Next stop, our brand new facility at 48 Dunlop Street - 2 floors of space for parties, functions and to accommodate simply more customers on busy days.

Aircon hall

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