"Are you aware of the concept of a spare?"

"Well, Prince Harry was the spare as long as Prince William did not have children."

"Right, so who is the spare now?"

"I guess it has to be the one from the tail end of successors who is not likely to become the reining monarch, so my take is it is Princess Charlotte."

"Hmmm, now my question is does the spare concept apply to our leaders?"

"Our leaders are democratically elected and oh I see where you are going with this!"

"Where am I going with this?"

"That the spare is the legal heir of the leader who is no more with us."

"Right, Zardari sahib was Benazir Bhutto's undisputed legal heir, the kids were under 18 at the time I think, though I would draw his attention to his own legal heir Bilawal who has been giving press conferences where he is not flanked by his dad's picture though the photographs of his mum and granddad are prominently displayed and..."

"Back off, Bilawal is not going to take on his dad if that's what you are implying! Bilawal is honouring the dead leaders of the party who sacrificed their lives for the party...."

"Right, and Zardari sahib's spares are Gilani, Raja Rental and anyone else so decreed by him; so then we come to the Sharifs, who is the spare?"

"All are agreed that Nawaz Sharif will decide and past precedence shows that he has the capacity to bide his time, could be months could be years, and then..."

"Ah, so Maryam versus Shahbaz is not over till it's over."

"Right, then there is the Mualana, he has brothers and sons so I am not sure who is in line but I do know that the Maulana himself is not a spare, do what you will Khan sahib!"

"OK, and The Khan is not a spare either though there are many contenders for that position."

"Right, so the conclusion: the leaders have no spares but all others are spares and need I add have to jostle to be the true and only spare so that..."

"Do the spares know there is many a slip between the cup and the lip?"

"The cup is far as far from the lip as the difference between lockdown and curfew..."

"Don't be facetious."