Chaudhry Nisar’s ‘non-mixable’ trade mark

Fair & Square

Was it an outburst from within or a well-thought-out extempore speech that Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan delivered the other day in his constituency in which he explained his ‘Alaihdgi pasandi’ or aloofness which is considered his personality’s ‘trade mark’ i.e ‘not mixing up with others’. 

How can he mix up with others or grant extra nearness to others when he is so ‘Alug Thulug’ (‘unique’, not ‘aloof’ is a proper English equivalent) and in the habit of saying things fairly and squarely staring in your eyes without any hanky panky. He has quite a fondness for calling a spade a spade and that makes him appear as an angry man. In the realm of metaphors and proverbs the term ‘angry man’ is normally written as ‘angry young man’. Applying this term to Ch Nisar’s personality and going by his young looks (despite his almost 35-year political career), it may not be wrong to label Ch Nisar as an ‘angry young man’. At least I am not willing to call him an angry old man. Anger and candour a la Ch Nisar are otherwise quite ‘young and youthful’ expressions given the fact that they make the things move practically and forcefully in a world immersed deep in inertia and lethargy. Who doesn’t know how our bureaucracy works and Ch Nisar has got the lion’s share of the national bureaucratic cake as he heads the lions among the services though some of the lions like FIA have, for years and years, together, remained in prolonged hibernation and deep slumber (but for the anger of proactive Interior Minister called Ch Nisar Ali Khan). 

My suggestion to Ch Nisar is to continue keeping his chin up forever even at the cost of friendships because nowadays ‘good people have gone scarce and bad people are found in abundance’, to quote Ch Nisar’s late father.

Interior minister in particular should be one who doesn’t indulge in political hypocrisy which has, for decades, remained an established trait of our political elite. It has been in hypocrisy that we have been finding ways for our salvation but it is to be tolerated no more at least in the big realm under the control and command of Interior Minister. For sure it doesn’t mean that other ranks such as that of PM and FM should adopt hypocrisy. 

One is delighted to know that Ch Nisar sometimes doesn’t feel reluctance in saying frank things before the Prime Minister and before some powers that be. This may sound iconoclastic in a society infested with sycophancy but I’m sure if some more Ch Nisars are born (or nurtured), the time may come when the shortcomings of many political bosses would be balanced with the candour typical of Ch Nisar.

While concluding my column I must also write a note of gratitude for such an ‘Alug Thulug’ minister who reads my write-ups as acknowledged by him briefly when he met me at Lahore’s old Executive airport where Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had arrived from London after his medical treatment. Even at point of time, the Interior Minister stood in one corner ‘Alug Thulug’ (far from the madding crowd).

….mianrehman1@gmail.com