"Many have expressed extreme reservations about the ex-servicemen's views."
"Too little, too late, right?"
"Well, the fact is these guys all supported military dictatorships in their time. But what I want to emphasise is that it's not too late or too little, I mean these ex-servicemen want to join those who are calling for some accountability of Musharraf's actions for the last eight years and this is the very first time ex-servicemen have done so."
"Accountability even before the last eight years I would imagine as they want to include the Kargil fiasco in the proposed accountability process."
"Right, a fiasco that led to the incarceration of Javed Hashmi for many years."
"A man who was raising the issue of Kargil and was not in any way connected to that hapless misadventure to put it mildly."
"Correct, but I still maintain that this is the first time in the history of dictatorships..."
"We really don't have a dictatorship any more, unless of course you define Zardari rule as a dictatorship."
"Let's be honest our political parties are not run democratically and PPP is not an exception."
"That is true and the fault for that also lies with the military dictators because every time they derail democracy the leaders of these parties emerge stronger."
"For obvious reasons: the civilian brand of dictatorship is still preferable to the military brand as it has fewer rigidities, shall we say?"
"Right so, you are saying that if there is a lesson learned by these ex-servicemen, even at a time when they have no powers, then we must support their intent and not rake up their past?"
"Yes."
"But by that logic even Musharraf represents past misrule and so deserves a reprieve."
"If we let him go we are back to square one in that we could have another military dictator in the future."
"The proposed constitutional package..."
"How long has it taken any military man to subvert the constitution and hold it in abeyance?"
"True so there must be some punishment otherwise..."
"Otherwise a danger to our fledgling democracy will remain."