"Raja Pervez Ashraf reminds me of General Musharraf during the early days of his presidency."
"Are you out of your mind? The two are so different, Musharraf came to power through a coup that is unconstitutional, Pervez Ashraf was elected by a parliament..."
"That is controlled by President Asif Ali Zardari."
"So what? It is his good relations with the allied parties that enables him to do what he wants in spite of the fact that the PPP is a minority government."
"Granted, but the point I was trying to make was that Ashraf was selected by one man and Musharraf with support from corps commanders elevated himself to the position of chief executive, or in other words a few - no more than five or six men - got together and elevated Musharraf."
"True, but the two represent different institutions and..."
"Can I make one clarification?"
"You can make two."
"Don't be facetious, this is serious. As far as I recall what I learnt in my civil studies there are three institutions that are protected by the constitution in a democratic set up: the executive, which is technically headed by Raja Pervez Ashraf, the judiciary and I don't think that it needs any elaboration and the legislature which is the parliament and constitutes of our elected representatives irrespective of their appalling performance of recent years."
"OK?"
"The army is not a pillar of state if you know what I mean, it's a pillar of our defence against external aggression and internal collapse."
"OK, but in reality..."
"Reality of today may not be the reality of tomorrow. Media is increasingly recognised as the fourth pillar."
"Mistakes have been made by all three pillars of state as well as army generals in the past."
"Right and General Kayani is right in stating that undue hype on recent court decisions may have elements of alienating the army from the people."
"The army has not yet undertaken accountability of generals who must be held responsible for keeping us so far behind India in all arenas."
"OK, but going back to the commonality of Ashraf and Musharraf let me remind you that when Musharraf was a pariah in the international community, before 9/11 attack, the only country that invited him was Vietnam while Ashraf is in even a smaller country namely Laos."
"I find similarities between Ashraf and Junejo, no not in terms of developing a backbone but in articulating in English. Could someone advise the Prime Minister to stick to Urdu and someone would translate for him."
"The PPP is pro-English speaking, whether they can speak in the language or not."
"Oh, dear."