"The National Reconstruction Bureau has decided to bring the police under the Nazims."
"Nazims as in Musharraf's brainchild, his decentralisation..."
"Surprising isn't it? On the one hand he wants to decentralise at the grass root level and at the other end he is consolidating powers under the office of the president."
"See the grass roots are where the political parties, the Nawalas and the Jiyalas held sway. Now with the Nazims owing loyalty to Musharraf if anyone, there is no danger of anyone along the line challenging the powers of the president."
"Pretty clever if you ask me."
"Exactly. And it's the same with everything else he has done so far - consolidate powers even through decentralisation if you know what I mean."
"Oh yes, I do. But what I found amazing is that the NRB came up with this suggestion and..."
"Did the President come up with the suggestion of being allowed to keep his uniform and reneging on the seventeenth amendment?"
"Well, no it's the Jiyalas turned Musharrafites that are suggesting that..."
"Did he have anything to do with the establishment of the National Security Council?"
"He had everything to do with the establishment of the NSC."
"Yes but when it was established he got his Lotas to do so - he wasn't even in the chamber right."
"What does that make us ordinary citizens?"
"Well, we are not important yet. We will only become important when we have had enough. However, the tribal people are also puppeteers of sorts - apparently they have started a hunt for those they were trying to protect a few months or even weeks ago and our army is happy to let them do so. My question is why would they give up the al Qaeda operatives they catch to the Pakistan army?"
"The army is not naïve - but it's so much better not to get killed and more importantly to kill your own people instead of the enemy.