"The Prime Minister has cancelled a foreign tour!"
"Hallelujah!"
"Hey, that's a Christian word so beware the terrorists."
"Don't be silly, Hallelujah means praise ye the Lord and last I heard the Lord is the same for Christians and Muslims though we refer to the Lord as Allah while the Christians refer to the Lord as God."
"And my friend surely you know by now that it's the words that are important to terrorists."
"The Prime Minister warned the terrorists in his address to the nation."
"Yes, yes but not a very impressive speech don't you think! To say we the government will get you is hardly going to send up shivers in the spines of terrorists, I mean based on what the Punjab government has been doing to apprehend and convict terrorists and their facilitators to date; besides don't forget the PM did not give any time line or indeed an action plan."
"Punjab is not alone - I hear the Sindh government..."
"It doesn't matter the fact remains that our civilian government's threats are hardly going to be taken seriously by the terrorists, it's the army that they are scared of. And the stand-off in the capital needs to be handed over to the army as well... I mean considering the sustained poor performance of our senior bureaucrats and our federal ministers giving them a legitimate excuse for not attending office and I am referring to the lock down of red zone is untenable."
"Look at the glass as half full."
"The glass is empty as far as I can see."
"No sir, it's half full and you know why? The ministers and the bureaucrats can't take decisions that would further compromise the performance of various ministries..."
"Hey, the ministers and senior bureaucrats are getting in and out of the zone it's the lower staff that can't attend - so no tea and biscuits..."
"I have heard some federal secretary hopefuls are making tea for their ministers."
"Don't be facetious... but you know some ministers are kind of missing - I haven't heard a peep out of the Minister of Defence."
"Are you being facetious?"
"No, he is either out of the country or has chosen to remain silent."
"He will speak once Mian sahib directs him to."
"Ah yes, there is that and that's why he remains close to the Sharif family."