"It would be a sight for sore eyes."
"What? The meeting between Mushahid, the not so svelte, and Bugti, the luxuriantly moustached nawab from Balochistan and the very slender Chaudhry with all the connections and none of the power."
"That meeting is not confirmed yet as Mushahid is out of the country these days. I believe this trip may be a mark of a reestablishment of some faith in his loyalty by the power that be."
"Where is he? In Davos?"
"Nah. For that kind of trip you need to show more loyalty to the government than he has shown. He is in Malaysia attending the session of the Eminent Persons Group of the Organisation of Islamic Conference."
"They couldn't be that eminent if you know what I mean. Otherwise Musharraf himself would have gone or sent one of his more loyal Lotas."
"Ah yes. But when I noted that it would be a sight for sore eyes I was actually referring to the Lahore Marathon on Sunday. The President and the PM have facilitated the Cousin for holding the marathon."
"The Cousin?"
"Chaudhry cousin, the CM of Punjab, the one who had to give up his ambitions when Shahbaz Sharif decided to become the CM of Punjab."
"Ah yes. Bad move by the Mians that!"
"Let's not talk of their bad moves. That would keep us busy for a long while. Anyway, I hope the new power that be follows the rules of the marathon practices in the old and tried democracies."
"What?"
"By participating."
"Are you crazy! You have a President who is over 60! You want him to have a heart attack while jogging."
"Well what about the Chosen One?"
"He is giving exclusive interviews to PTV in Davos."
"Why did he need to go to Davos to give exclusive interviews to PTV! Why couldn't he have saved us the money and stayed home."
"Ah, you simpleton. Foreign trips are part of the perks...ooops, sorry the hardships of being Chosen."
"What about Pervez Elahi jogging in the marathon?"
"He is quite slim - doesn't need it. But the Education Minister is jogging."
"Musharraf needs to intervene here...maybe, send Tariq Aziz to sort out the mess."
"What mess?"
"Our Lotas were used to being abused and misused all for the sake of perks, shall we say, but if Lotaism is to also mean jogging then I am sure there will be many defections...at least in the Punjab. In any case I think Musharraf should jog. I mean Bush Senior was older than Musharraf and he used to jog?"
"Bush Senior was part of an old democracy. We have the new and improved one."
"But in any case we are a lazy bunch in Punjab. We are importing 60 foreign runners to do the job for us."
"Its Gajar Ka Halwa season - if it was only summer we would be out jogging. In any case this is not true, there are to be more than 12000 joggers."
"Will they be brought in a truck like the Lotas do with their rallies?"
"Don't be facetious. In any case, we wouldn't even run in the summer, we would complain about the heat."