White Lies

One minute you are considered a professional par excellence and the ambassador-designate to Beijing. Next minute your appointment is on hold. The mubariks stop pouring in and you are left wondering what went wrong. According to Islamabad insiders, the problem actually lies not in the person’s CV but in a core government objective - the Jiyala policy. The list of Jiyalas to be accommodated is so long that recruiting an army of roving ambassadors, assigning doctors to reconstruct the administrative system and hiring artists to get PIA up and running will not solve the problem. You need another million jobs to accommodate the butchers, the bakers and candlestick makers now holding Jiyala placards. Perhaps that is why our ambassador-designate to the UN is still waiting - and wondering.

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