“So now what?” “The cookie crumbled in this country a long time ago.” “I don’t quite understand your statement.” “Well cookies come in one box and within that box there are individual cookies so to say.”

“Hmmmm.”

“Most cookies crumble.”

“Not all, there are some cookies that crumble, but not all.”

“Thank you for pointing that out the cookie that does not crumble is the party leader – good or bad decisions he takes them all unopposed and steadfastly.”

“Right but then if you are implying that the cookies that crumble are resisting bad decisions then I am afraid it’s a bad analogy because the second and third tier amongst our politicians’ would never dare to …”

“Read all non-family members of the leader in the second and third tiers.”

“Indeed and within family members there is an emerging hierarchy…”

“But so far its age-wise right – I mean Father, Uncle, Daughter, Cousins, samdhis whose placement depends on the will of the Father…”

“The daughter and the Holy Ghost.”

“Don’t be facetious anyway as I was saying the non-family members crumble not because of bad decisions by the leader, I mean if that were the case then Nawaz Sharif and The Khan would be like Sheikh Rashid, one man shows by now…”

“But because better options become available elsewhere.”

“Or agricultural department issues may develop.”

“Don’t be facetious.

“Nope that is a critical component of the entire argument. Anyway a new phenomenon has emerged in this country where cookies are crumbling not only amongst our political class – we were used to seeing that anyway. Sometimes at a predictable pace and sometimes not so predictable but now the cookies are crumbling in major institutions.”

“What about their cookie that does not crumble?”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023