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Enlightened Moderation

The TV channel that airs the show calls it “the meanest chat show on tv”. Ali Saleem, the host of the show, thinks he is a diva. Even “sitting senators have sent requests to be on the show”. If you haven’t seen the Late Night Show With Begum Nawazish Ali , you are missing quite a “thing”. Begum Nawazish Ali, “a coquettish widow who interviews Pakistan’s glitterati and some of its top politicians”, is, in fact, Ali Saleem, Pakistan’s ground-breaking drag artist.

Begum Nawazish Ali is quite a charactor. “With fluttering eyelids and glossy lips, Begum Nawazish Ali … flirts with male guests using suggestive banter and sexual innuendo.” And as Salman Masood puts it for the International Herald Tribune, when she speaks, he’s breaking all of Islam’s taboos.

Thanks to President Pervaiz Musharraf’s Plea for Enlightened Moderation, we are being enlightened. Even Ali “owe[s] Begum Nawazish Ali’s existence … to General Musharraf”.

How cute. Enlighten me up scotty.