A little light relief

Amidst the horror that is Gaza and the warlike noises emanating from the leadership of two countries neither of which can afford a war we do seek a little light relief. And luckily, it is not too difficult to find. It is very much there with us, if we care to look.
We must thank our lucky stars, doom and gloom notwithstanding, that our television screens and press photographs never fail to offer us glimpses of humour. We have the ebullient Sheikh Rashid, ever present whether in or out, and his undisguised toupee. We have the vocal champion, opposition spokesman Chaudhry Nisar Ali, who never fails to amuse, deadly serious as may be, with his outdated Beatles style wig that for almost two decades has not changed as far as one single hair is concerned.
Moving to Sindh, back with us is Qaim Ali Shah as an ineffective chief minister, with a head of hair blacker than ever, and moustache to match. This we forgive him, despite chuckles about the obvious. Then last week, much friendly and sympathetic humour was generated when the accidental president of the Republic was caught on camera after his travels to Kabul. So bundled up was he, and obviously intensely cold, that he was unrecognisable, and having thawed out was barely recognisable at a joint press conference with Hamid Karzai, his non-climatically challenged Afghan counterpart.
Poor Asif Zardari, sent off to Kabul in January - so, why all the fuss about the award of the Crescent of the Great Leader to a US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs? That same day Richard Boucher had reportedly stated that drone attacks into Pakistan territory would continue unabated and that the Mumbai terrorists were linked to Pakistan - both home truths. The president has good reason to not only be grateful to Uncle Sam but to demonstrate his gratitude and to do, as all good boys do, what he is told to do. This he does, so far to perfection.
Oddly incongruous, given the fraught situation, was the reported statement given to Der Spiegel by ISI chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha explaining his reluctance to take on the Taliban. His belief is that they are entitled to 'freedom of opinion', to 'think and say what they believe', which is that 'jihad is their obligation'.
Fast on the heels of these two outings came the flexing of prime ministerial muscle power, in the absence from the country of the ruling president, and the first casualty in the break up of the American appointed team put in place to monitor the government. Major General Mehmud Ali Durrani, a US appointee to the post of National Security Advisor talking to CNN-IBN informed the world that Ajmal Kasab, captured in the Mumbai terrorist attack, was indeed a citizen of Pakistan.