"Sherry Rehman queried Omar Ayub Khan as to why Nadra was given zero allocations in the budget." "And others have come up with figures that are plain and simply inconsistent and therefore lack any credibility in terms of revenue generation and expenditure."
"Still others have politely informed the government that the earthquake victims are in dire straits and building the GHQ in Islamabad at a time like this, procuring very expensive F-16s from the US especially when we are being asked not to be India-centric, at a time when our trade deficit is again on the rise, and, indeed, increasing expenditure on defence to presumably fight the war on terror with US funding slashed because of our democratic non-credentials does not quite make economic sense."
"Maybe, it makes political sense." "If this is a budget with next year's elections in mind, then they have done a bad job of that too." "What do you mean?" "As I said earlier inflation will rise due to wage increases across the board and unemployment of the masses has rarely been tackled by micro finance schemes so that pretty much leaves elections in the hands of the..."
"I will laugh if you say the opposition."
"If they are free and fair I would imagine that is precisely where it would lead us."
"But they are going to subsidise price of essentials and sell them in Utility Stores and have mobile Utility Stores for people in rural areas."
"And I imagine if any constituency votes for an Opposition leader the mobile Utility Stores may just change its routing."
"They can't do that!"
"Why not! Didn't you hear PIA refused to bring any relief goods for the earthquake victims that were not specifically marked for the head President's Relief Fund."
"Was there an investigation on that?"
"If wishes were horses."
"As I have said repeatedly in the past they tend to become horses except it takes the next administration for it to happen."