"Popularity today doesn't mean popularity forever."
"Ha ha...no status quo in popularity, is that what you mean?"
"Yep, take the case of Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and as the economic indicators deteriorate public anger is rising."
"I know where you are going with this but it doesn't apply here - she unadvisedly raised the budget deficit from 2 to 10 percent by increasing state pensions and extending unproductive tax breaks for favoured industries..."
"Right and I urge Rousseff to come to Pakistan and draw some lessons from what Ishaq Dar is up to here."
"Reduce the deficit by cutting down development expenditure? Manipulate data to show better performance than is in fact the case? Keep the rupee overvalued to show lower external debt and exporters be damned? Label tax amnesty schemes as investment promotion in 2013 and now as broadening of tax base to specifically include traders setting records for the frequency of such schemes which should be one offs and...."
"But the amnesty is only for four years - from 2015 onwards - and previous income is not included in this and..."
"It's on working capital my friend....and working capital is based on previous income no? Besides Dar has included a year beyond his party's tenure and..."
"That's because Ahsan Iqbal's very long-term visions have come to roost in Dar-led Ministry as well."
"The very same Iqbal who has failed yet again to convince members of the opposition as well as allies that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has not been changed to benefit Punjab?"
"The same man, but at least he has convinced his own party leaders and..."
"The same Iqbal who has consistently ignored Khawaja Asif, the Minister for Water and Power in spite of the fact that 90 percent of CPEC investment is for the power sector?"
"You can't convince all of the people all of the time."
"True, but ignoring the relevant Minister..."
"Khawaja Asif has made some behavioural errors recently..."
"Behavioural errors? I thought the important thing was performance...."
"Nope, behavioural errors can alienate the public as well as the leadership..."
"Zardari sahib doesn't do that".
"Yes he does - first he got rid of those opposed to his inheriting from his late wife, and that is allowed under all laws - Islamic and other laws - and afterwards he proceeded to cow down all who remained, including the highly educated and liberals, like Sherry Rehman, Raza Rabbani, Aitzaz Ahsan..."
"But such inheritance is not allowed in democracies...."
"Maybe not in ideal democracies but certainly in several functioning democracies like ours..."