White Lies

It was HH vs. HH in New York and one of them was winning all the way. Some thought it was meant to be a Hussein Haroon show since he is Pakistan's permanent rep at the UN and it was President Zardari's first tryst with the UN. However, the glib-talking many times married self-made Hussein Haqqani whose association with the PPP dates back to over a decade when he switched over from Nawaz Sharif to Bibi, managed to overshadow the confirmed bachelor urbane, cigar smoking scion of the Abdullah Haroon dynasty. Haqqani was fully in charge of the Bush-Zardari meeting but crossed over to Haroon's UN turf with the dexterity of an athlete, issuing parallel programmes and orders as if not fully satisfied with Haroon's competence. It was also too much of a coincidence that Haroon who had assumed his post only a few weeks back failed to receive an invitation to the official Iftar party given for the President where Haqqani reigned supreme with the halo of one who has connections with a few US think tanks. It is another matter that Mr. Zardari left staying only a few minutes and without breaking bread with the local jialyas who had come from all over the US to meet their new leader. Haroon of course spent a quiet evening at home watching the televised debate between Obama and McCain and mulling over the issue of being hostage to one's job or not.

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