"What have you been up to?"
"Avidly reading foreign newspapers and magazines!"
"I guess Pakistan has been much in the news there."
"Indeed and the focus is Zardari."
"I could well imagine."
"Each and every single piece I read is anti-Zardari - his Mr 10 percent epithet, his wheeling and dealing as one magazine put it and his..."
"Hang on a second - we in the Pakistani media haven't recalled the past all that much. I would have thought we would be more biased against him than the foreign press for after all Zardari is our president."
"No we haven't done it and it is because we want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean he is democratically elected."
"One foreign magazine conceded that but then added that the President has an electoral college and so he is not popularly elected."
"I pray Zardari proves them all wrong and sets an example that would take this country out of its debt ridden status, not to forget high inflation, serious law and order as well as cruelty to women..."
"Hang on that is a bit too much for one man to achieve. Is he taking along a national coalition?"
"You know as well as I that this is not going to happen. The PML (N), the second largest party in the country, has parted ways and the reason for that is none other than Zardari."
"So now what!? Maybe if Punjab is allowed to be ruled by the PML (N) then some sort of rapprochement may yet be possible."
"Not if recent indications are anything to go by."
"So back to the era of the 1990s when conflict was the rule of the day."
"And wait for a strong man to come back?"
"The time is not right for that but I guess another expensive election."