"I am getting sick of load shedding."
"Wait till summer."
"This will continue into summer?"
"I would imagine especially if there are no rains."
"So we need a lot of rains for our electricity and what would that do to our crops?"
"Good point: we want rain in just the right amount."
"It sounds so medieval. I mean we are relying on nature and fate to provide..."
"Exactly."
"Who is responsible for this energy shortfall?"
"Musharraf and later his Chosen One, who was not chosen by the Lota party though he himself was a Lota, were briefed that the country was moving towards an energy crisis and if something was not done..."
"I see: Musharraf was informed of a looming energy crisis well before he created his own Lota party. And who is responsible for inflationary pressures?"
"After 3 December, I don't think you can hold any one responsible but the President - the capital flight, low tax collections leading to the President's decision to meet public expenditure through deficit financing, the continuing rise in non development expenditures..."
"And his foreign trip to Europe also contributed?"
"Yes but that was a trivial amount compared to the expensive ongoing military operations..."
"What about the balance of payments situation in the country?"
"Post or pre 3 November 2007?"
"Doesn't matter - the policies remained the same."
"And how is Musharraf dealing with this situation?"
"As he is dealing with all other situations...ignoring them and hoping they would go away. Meanwhile he has decided not to renew the visas of influential US pollsters."
"Pollsters of an organisation headed by McCain, a US presidential candidate, I hear..."
"Right and if he becomes president of the US then Musharraf is even more of a marked man."
"Don't think he is looking at that long a term."
"So he is looking as far as 18 February."
"Indeed, meanwhile, the people of Pakistan continue to suffer while Musharraf plays his politics and the Opposition theirs."