Eggs, toasts, a croissant, fruits and a cup of tea. No lassi, no nehari and no parathay.
“Is the prime minister on a diet?” I asked a member of the official media who accompanied Nawaz Sharif on his recent visit to New York.
“Not particularly. This is what he eats now,” the journalist responded.
I accepted the explanation, although the memories of my last breakfast with the PM and his entourage contradicted the claim. But that was almost 25 years ago, when the PM was still young.
The PM might have lost some weight but he still needs a stricter diet, at least to fit in the expensive bespoke suit he was wearing. Although tailored for him, the suit did not fit the PM, indicating that he might have put on some weight since it was stitched.
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This made a Lahori New Yorker friend of mine suggest that if things kept going like this, the PM would need to change his wardrobe more often than he does now.
I looked at him as he stood there making next to no effort hiding his potbelly.
“Have you heard the idiom, the kettle calling the pot black?” I asked.
“Well, I am not the prime minister. I do not represent Pakistan. I only represent Lahore, which allows me this roundness,” he said, lovingly stroking his stomach.
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Another friend who watched the breakfast video on a Pakistani television channel suggested that the PM needs to hire former president Asif Ali Zardari’s tailor.
“Not the tailor but his dietitian,” said a PPP jiyala, claiming that he knew Mr Zardari followed a strict diet and had also made other lifestyle changes because of his ailing heart.
It wasn't just the prime minister’s dress. His speech to the UN General Assembly last week also stirred heated debates in Pakistani circles in New York.
The Indians were hoping that Mr Sharif would not raise the Kashmir issue in his speech because he still wanted to meet his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.
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The Pakistanis argued that no Pakistani leader could ignore Kashmir and still do politics in Pakistan, so they were certain that Mr Sharif would raise the issue. But they thought he would only mention it briefly and move on to other subjects.
The prime minister surprised all. He devoted a large part of his speech to the Kashmir issue, making it clear that there could be no peace in the region as long as this issue was settled.
“Who wrote the speech?” a New York-based Pakistani journalist asked a member of the PM’s staff.
“Not Shireen Mazari,” the official replied, with a broad smile on his face.
“But she should know because she is close to the khakis,” a journalist commented.
“Wrong insinuation,” said the official. “Why do you think the khakis contributed to this speech?”
“Because of this strong emphasis on Kashmir,” the journalist replied.
“Remember, the PM is not just a Pakistani, he is a Kashmiri Pakistani and this issue is as dear to him as to those in uniform,” the official said. “We want good relations with India but cannot give up our principled stance on Kashmir to earn their friendship.”
The Kashmir issue was also discussed at the breakfast and the PM strongly refuted the suggestion that he was willing to give up Kashmir to please India.
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The prime minister also had a detailed discussion with representatives of Pakistani media on PTI’s dharna, but asked them not to report what he said.
Other members of his team later explained that the PM understood the dharna crowd had come to Islamabad, “seeking some dead bodies.”
But the PM had decided not to succumb to their provocations, said a senior member of the PML-N government.
“We are not going to give what they want. Laashon ki siasat ab nahen chalay gi (we won't let anyone play politics over dead bodies),” the official added.
“The government will not try to forcibly remove the dharna-walas even if they stay for a year,” he said. “If they ask, we can build a small market for them to buy food.”
But the dharna did have an impact on the PM’s engagements in New York. Only PML-N supporters were invited to the reception he hosted for the Pakistani community. The media too was kept out.
But all these precautions could not prevent PTI supporters from holding a very large protest rally outside the UN building while the PM was addressing the General Assembly.
Almost 3,000 people attended the rally, which made it the Pakistani community’s largest protest outside the UN in years.