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Love is in the air. Or as Reg Presley had titled his song performed by The Troggs and later by Wet Wet Wet, ‘Love is All Around’. The other day I read in Musharraf’s section of the press a piece titled ‘I love Musharraf, I love Musharraf, I love Musharraf’ by Jasmeen Manzoor. I had guessed as much when I decided to read the details of the story. Upon reading it was learnt that it was about a little known (pardon my ignorance if it is otherwise) ‘Miss Pakistan World’. And as evident by the story’s title she certainly was talking of her fondness for the president. Before you let your mind drift and instead of admiring this take on Miss Pakistan World (whatever it means) win the title ‘Miss the Point Big Time’ let me correct an impression taking root. Somehow I find an impression emerging that Musharraf is popular only among the women, that too the lesser known Miss Pakistan (big times). Nah, he is popular among men too.For instance let me talk of an Iqbal Kehal, a councillor from Mouza Lundi Pitafi who supported the Q-league in the February elections. I said ‘supported’ because as per our dear S.T.H (why not all the alphabets) Naqvi the councillors are supposed (albeit vainly) to be non-partisan. A man very tall, well-built and endowed with Dursley’ish moustaches he certainly means business. Unfortunately, I spoke to him only before the elections and do not know whether the results have dented his peculiar worldview or not. Clearly then our dear missy’s statement had not been made public or I would have managed to extract an equally catching headline from him. Mr Kehal, just like the lady, thinks that the ex-general is quite a catch. He confesses that absolute power in spite of being highly corrupting is also highly sexy.
I say sexy as in the allegation by the BBC that the British government had deliberately sexed up dossier on Iraq. Otherwise, I know that power politics is asexually sexy (whatever that means, again) and that the praise by the Ms World contestant was no reflective any malafide intent for otherwise it would have fallen under the rubric of slander. Slander then would have constituted an assault on the presidency, the prestigious symbol of the federation (forget Constitution and the Supreme Court please and focus on the animated charisma - whatever that means), in which we the cynics are often alleged of indulging. And as good natured as I try to be I prefer to believe that the president’s admirers are not busy in undercutting the prestige of the federation and hence the suggestion by the lady of her predilection for going out with the president was essentially limited to an intellectual date rather than any physical one (whatever that means too).
The president of the Islami Jamhooria Pakistan should hence feel flattered that there are admirers in this country of his intellect as well and not merely of his power. Of course he is a writer and has given us a book whose review I have so lovingly placed on my all new review blog (www.pitafi.com/review). In fact, the review of his book is the first entry in the blog. You can then of course guess that even this rookie is a great admirer of his intellect.
Now before I return to Iqbal Kehal’s worldview let me also discuss a personal dilemma. Upon reading the article that is the origin of this discussion, I was seized by the sudden urge to google the name of the Miss Pakistan and Miss whatever else you want to. I did so for I wanted to know the meaning of her name. Having good grip on Urdu, if not English, I must not hesitate to confess my surprise at failing to understand the meaning of her name: Mahleej Sarkari. Pardon my ignorance again but I, a great fan of using unusual names a proof of which is my daughter’s name ‘Oxana’, was at a loss to find any word even rhyming with her name except khaleej (ocean). The second part of her name is as understandable as it can be. Her surname is Sarkari, which means official. Now we all know that she is not the official representative of the conservative Islamic state called Pakistan. Hence, it suits her to have a surname that brags of her (no matter non-existent) official credentials. I wish that happy with her praise the symbol of the federation confers on her the official title. But then of course what will become of her surname?
When I googled her name, it is so uncommon, that I instantaneously reached her website. Standing in pictures was half-covered image of a damsel in distress. No I do not have issues with her half-covered status. This is the age of brutal capitalism and in it less clothes becomes only a need of the hour. Certainly if the product in that case like the dish of the day in Douglas Adam’s Restaurant at the End of Universe wants to be presented in that way what excuses do we have to stop its way? I have problems with the ‘damsels in distress’ part. If anything projects her Pakistani connection it is not her name or even mediocrity of appearance for I know uncountable beautiful faces endowed with brains here. No it was the almost childlike guilty apprehensions on her face. If you remember Anita Ayub had also gone to India and had given the Stardust magazine a photo shoot with skimpy dress and a bare back. The image that I can recollect in that picture is of her rather guilty expressions. Folks, when you have to go abroad and do it, please do it with style. It should not look that a female counterpart of Iqbal Kehal is dressed in Western clothes.
While I will spare Iqbal Kehal for some other time, I must say that I am really flustered by only one thing in the entire episode. It is sad that an impression is being given that the president is only popular among the women. No, remember that Pakistan is a federation and that it has two silent federating units, namely men and women. By promoting the image of his popularity in one province alone, we do a disservice to the federation. The president is the only one-person symbol of the federation. It is then wrong to project him the president of one federating unit alone. I think Iqbal Kehal would also then be interested to give a similar interview. Please know that he cannot wear what our missy wears but he is appealing in his own right. Any takers then?

Posted on April 20th, 2008 under Political Satire •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback