Of politics, heat and wedding meals

A writer has said that a constitution is the distilled history of a nation. But here we are talking about a wide, many- lane-road called the Constitution Avenue, where political activity is heating up these days, specially in the Parliament House situated on this majestic boulevard.

But let us talk of more mundane affairs, as it were, like the woes of Islamabad residents who are experiencing hide and seek of electricity in sultry weather and the rising cost of living.

There is the disturbing revelation that while the national inflation remained below 8 per cent, the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi suffer double-digit inflation.

Even if ignorant of the maxim that there are lies, damned lies followed by statistics, the housewife in these cities requires no statistics to prove that tomatoes are double their price, and prices of pulses like moong and mash have risen sharply. People travelling by public transport know the amount of money they now have to pay in terms of their daily fare.

Those travelling in airconditioned limousines, and living in airconditioned houses, (provided to them by either the government or a multinational organization) may, perhaps, not appreciate what happens when one comes out on the road in search of a public transport which becomes airconditioned only when the vehicle moves at some speed. Some of these persons, such as building industry workers, might have to sit in the scorching sun at open places at fixed points waiting to be hired for the day.

Now, there is some good news, specially for those who are always looking for a meal at wedding parties. The new law passed by the parliament may not provide a wedding meal to their heart’s content, they could at least have a one-dish meal.

Whether that one dish expands beyond the six items the new law allows would be known when these wedding-meals are presented once again to the guests in restaurants and marriage halls on engagement, valima, rukhsati and mehndi functions.

But the ban on serving meals at such functions had existed only for the meek and the poor. They stuck to the permitted offer of hot or cold drink. Some added dry dates for face-saving as a consolation prize.

However the rich, as always, had their ways of flouting or circumventing the ban. Sometimes, one was offered a slip by the rich that had a map indicating a house where you were supposed to reach immediately where a crowd of guests would be feasting on sumptuous dishes away from the eyes of law.

Today the ban is history. In the meanwhile good luck to all the wedding-hallwalas, and those involved in the poultry business. For the latter, specially, comes another sign to bid adieu to the nightmare of the bird flu that is, if it has really gone.— Mufti Jamiluddin Ahmad