On the issue of whether President General Pervez Musharraf would relinquish or retain his post as Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff.








Can a leopard abjure its spots,


Or as another animal be reborn?


Can one jungle beast become another,


Change heredity inborn?


Can nature its own laws reverse


And unnaturally transform


The most basic instincts in each,


Not simply their outward form.





Lions other than lions can never be;


as kings, they have duties to perform.


They must roar and snarl,


let the colour of their pelt inform


the forest of their supremacy.


Why should lions agree to be shorn


Of their commanding mane,


To become weak objects of scorn?





Lions laws of the jungle make,


Its Constitutions suborn.


They do not need another coat,


a president’s garb. It is too time-worn


to sit comfortably on epaulettes.


Other jungle cats must their demands reform,


and accept that this lion king


will not discard his uniform.








[Published in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS.]