EVEN when the collectors of creative data are not counting, it can be safely assumed that the average Pakistani unmasks a couple of conspiracies every hour.

Some Pakistanis are more prolific when it comes to seeing through ‘nefarious’ designs, while others are in a perpetual state of being conspired against.

They would be all very pleased to have found justification for their preoccupation with theories voiced in absolute tones by the very leaders who should be assuring the people that no one is plotting their downfall.

Two new conspiracies that were revealed to national readers on Tuesday stood out. Teachers in Sindh blew up the embarrassingly inadequate cover on the dark scheme to take over public universities, and the prime minister ordered an investigation of the PIA management’s role in the ongoing strike that has crippled the operations of what is still a national airline.

Reports say the management might have colluded with the workers, ‘hand in glove’, to bring PIA to a halt. Needless to say, this latest conspiracy follows the slow, deliberate death the airline was subjected to by a government out to dispose of state assets.

It would appear that no other term has the expanse and efficacy of the word ‘conspiracy’.

Consider a group of officials forced to explain to the boss, say a prime minister, how a certain package, for example about privatisation, didn’t quite unfold as it had been predicted to. Would it suffice for them to come up with a straightforward note explaining the dissenters’ grievances and the possible answers to address those?

Not quite when there is at hand a worthy term that can so profoundly cover all aspects of an issue and project one as the victim of a sinister plot.

The conspiracy theorists will be emboldened when topnotch functionaries can at will parade a handful of conspirators shamelessly working against development.

The creative monitors of fancy trends need not despair. Given the current acceptance of the term, conspiracy talk is not leaving this land anytime soon.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016