"Qazi Sahib wants the MQM to be disbanded and declared a terrorist organisation."
"Well, the election violence in Karachi was an indication that..."
"That what? MQM is a terrorist organisation? But doesn't it also show that Mahar is incompetent and cannot ensure law and order during election time."
"Mahar is a stooge like they all are."
"So what do we do? Declare MQM a terrorist organisation? Declare Mahar a terrorist for tacitly favouring the party that is part of the whole - the whole supporting one man! And, therefore, not taking adequate precautions to ensure peace during elections? If that is the criterion for declaring a party terrorist then perhaps we would need to declare all members of the present government terrorists."
"If we had democracy then this would never have happened...the old kind not the new and improved kind."
"I don't know where we are headed. I mean the numbers of innocent killed during the rule of the present government have been mind boggling. In any democracy, not new and improved, but the old kind, the government would have been forced to resign."
"And here we have the makings of a continuity of power with the Musharraf Lotas vying to stand in line to join his party...I tell you the politicians will sell their souls for a piece of the pie."
"I challenge that. Granted that all military dictators came to power through the back door, and by that I mean by suspending the constitution..."
"And later amending it as and when it suited them or they felt like it."
"Yeah, yeah but the fact remains that the politicians were not the first to sell their souls to the military dictators. It starts off with support from the senior echelons of the armed forces and works its way down to the judiciary, and then the bureaucracy and then we have the police and all. Politicians come last when the ruler actually had deluded himself that..."
"That he has popular support?"
"If he had that then all the actions taken against viable political leaders would not happen. He has deluded himself that he is there for the national interest and that the interest can be served only by his continued rule."
"Ah yes."
"And he needs to legitimise his rule - only then do politicians enter the picture. If the PML (Lotas) had refused to co-operate Musharraf would never have been able to legitimise his rule and would have had to leave or take the country towards isolation."
"He would have opted for isolation. I mean we were isolated for a while till September 11 happened."
"Yep two years and where was national interest then?"