"I heard that the Prime Minister may be off to Kabul."
"I don't think so."
"I am sorry?"
"Well, Kabul is not an attractive tourist destination, I mean there can be no medical check ups there, there can be no meetings with a large settled Pakistani emigrant community, there can be no prospect of any loans or grants from Kabul, and..."
"Don't be facetious. You and I both know that relations with Kabul are critical to solving the Taliban problem and besides heads of government visit those countries that are important from their country's perspective, be it security or..."
"Yes, I have noticed the visits by the head of the US and the UK governments to Kabul but, let's be honest Karzai is kind of a maverick and has his own agenda which may or may not be in synch with the needs of his country or the rest of the world for that matter."
"I have a proposal, why doesn't Nawaz Sharif send Dar to Kabul?"
"As I said earlier there is no prospect of any loans or grants form Kabul and Dar only goes where he can get loans if you know what I mean."
"I thought the policy of self sufficiency and indigenous..."
"Oh give me a break, haven't you figured out there is a difference between what a politician says and what he does."
"Oh dear!"
"All politicians in all countries do that."
"But Dar is not an elected politician, he is a selected..."
"In Pakistani politics the selected are favoured by party leaders, they can be controlled more easily, from Container Malik to Ishaq Dar to..."
"Some selected politicians are difficult to control, I mean Aitzaz Ahsan and Raza Rabbani and..."
"I thought the days of their principled politics are over - I mean taking a case for one rupee and then losing it and being upset because a position was not offered yet not resigning in protest, rightly so as it is the prerogative of the party leader to grant..."
"Indeed my friend, but anyway I agree our Prime Minister does keep Dar close to him whenever he goes abroad though if Dar's personal ratings are anything to go by he should keep him as far away as is possible when elections are near."
"What about local bodies elections?"
"Hmmmm, I am not sure national economic policy disasters would have any bearing on them but let's see."