I don’t know, but I suppose the defence of democracy is more important than traffic on the Ferozepur Road. So the stand taken by our Prime Minister, Yousaf Reza Gilani, after he was convicted of contempt by the Supreme Court, was probably more important than the ‘soft’ opening of the Ferozepur Road flyover, which dwarfs all of the similar ventures in the City.

Look, I have a personal interest in the flyover. It sharply cuts my traveling time to office. Since one end of the Ferozepur Road flyover was opened a little while ago, I amazed She Whose Word Is Law by getting home from the office a little earlier than usual. Now I suppose the opening of the other end means that I can leave house a little later.
But I suppose the real benefit is the way I will avoid the Ferozepur Road traffic. All the way from the Canal to Ichhra, the flyover just (literally) goes over the head of the Ferozepur Road, but from Ichhra to Mozang Chungi, where the Ferozepur Road disappears into Lytton Road, Queens Road and Bahawalpur Road, you get the full flavour of the Ferozepur Road, with its traffic in which it seems no one is allowed to concede an inch, but everyone had his thumb affixed to the horn. The horn-blowing, it seems, is compulsory. And then there are the traffic signals. Let’s not talk about them, except to say that they leave a painful memory. In short, taking the totality of the experience, ever since I learned to drive, I’ve tried to avoid the Ferozepur Road, though that has not been possible since She Whose Word Is Law loves to shop there.
It seems that the flyovers have been built for me, since the Ferozepur Road flyover has meant that I now calmly drive past a place where I either nervously tried to race past a traffic light that might turn red at any moment, or halt suddenly because it had turned red. If I go by the old time, I have had it halved by the two flyovers. But there seems to be something wrong with the Kalima Chowk flyover, for the repair work there meant a massive traffic jam, and a restoration of my old traveling time, as I crawled down the Bridge, and along the Ferozepur Road. Apparently that traffic jam is going to be a permanent feature.
I would be quite happy, only there seems to have been a further plan for the Ferozepur Road, because of which there is construction, and leading to traffic jams.
It seems that I will never be left to enjoy the improvements, because there will always be a new one succeeding the last. However, this is probably an election year phenomenon, what with elections about to take place within the year. That should mean that the first two years of a tenure should be without any road-building. After all, governments have lasted for at least three years if elected, longer if military. And it seems the only way to get rid of a military regime before it gets too tired is to lose half the country. So I wonder if Balochistan will be lost when we try to get rid of the next military government.
Anyhow, meanwhile, instead of the Ferozepur Road flyover, we need to think about whether Yousaf Reza Gilani is Prime Minister. Indeed, we need to think about whether he is an MNA. And we need to do so because, whatever the questions about him, we know he is a contempt convict. Now, he didn’t have time to put on prison clothes or stop shaving for a few days, because he was only sentenced to imprisonment till ‘the rising of the court’, which it normally does right away, not having any other business. It was all the punishment he was to get, what was all the fuss about?
Of course, even if he was removed from the National Assembly, he would probably need presidential permission to leave office. And it’s being an election year is probably being quoted as a reason to put off his disqualification. Of course Yousaf Reza has the best of reasons for resisting the decision: he wishes to avoid international disgrace for the country.
How exactly will that happen? Well, what with a disqualified PM, it would seem pointless to have inducted so many new ministers. And then there is the case against The Prime Minister’s younger son, the ephedrine case. Without the PM in office, who is to protect the newly elected MNA?
Of course, the whole business cannot be considered over till the sole Warrior on Terror weighs in. It seems he’s not letting himself be distracted this time. But until he decides, nothing can happen. If it can, that means Pakistan is not serious about fighting terror. The next step in that is for the law-enforcing agencies to carry out an attack on the militants in Waziristan, with the sole Warrior running in the lead.