ARTICLE: "So infighting in the ruling party..."

"Right, but that should not surprise anyone; there have been numerous reports of two powerful groups, whose leaders sometimes aired their grievances against each other in public."

"Your comment is dated, Jehangir Tareen is bowled out, Shah Mehmud Qureshi is the outfielder and running all over the place..."

"You referring to his being kept very busy by Modi?"

"Yes, he is too busy to turn his full attention on the divisiveness within the Cabinet. The coalition partners are the quietest and the US team the most vocal as it holds key positions which trump the Khanzadehs in the cabinet and..."

"Where do Trump and the US come in?"

"US as in the Unelected Selected; and trump with a small t."

"What are you a democrat? Whatever you may think of the Trump administration he is the president of the US and some respect is..."

"I meant trump as in to defeat someone."

"Oh! By the way I was watching some Western news agency where it was reported that India had sent half of our High Commission (HC) contingent back home and decided to downgrade its HC in Islamabad to half the staff strength at the same time."

"You reckon Qureshi's decision to send half of the Indian HC staff packing post dates Modi's decision to downgrade the Indian HC here?"

"Hmmm, not sure, anyway The Khan reportedly told his cabinet colleagues that they have till the end of the year, not fiscal but calendar year, to show performance otherwise it may be too late."

"Why does that upset you? I mean that's the right decision!"

"All cabinet members have been in place for more than a year, some for almost two years, so why give them an additional six months!"

"There has been some shuffling - Hammad Azhar is the most shuffled man of them all, ousted twice I think - from the revenue and the economic affairs division, replacing one advisor as the man incharge of industries and no one knows if he is taking decisions at variance with those of the much older advisors and..."

"Agreed, Asad Umar was the only one to quit though he was offered another ministry but he opted to sit at home for a while, a right decision as he is back with a vengeance - he is effectively our deputy prime minister like Dar was Nawaz Sharifs and...and...and..."

"And like Chaudhry Pervez Elahi was Zardari sahib's?"

"OK, so I may not give Zardari sahib an honorary Phd but that certainly merits an honorary BA degree."