"Yes. And no one is asking the Maulanas any more to attend."
"The Maulanas are out of favour and lets not delude ourselves - its not because their ideology is different from Musharraf's but for other reasons."
"Yes their pesky insistence that he take off his uniform well after age 60, the retirement age."
"Even poodle and the Commonwealth are hoping he will take off the uniform in 2007."
"If wishes were horses."
"As I keep saying wishes are horses in Pakistani politics. I mean where else will you have Chaudhry as an interim PM, Jamali out in less than a year and a political non-entity as the PM."
"All this in a democracy too. That is the marvel."
"The new and improved variety."
"But all those proponents of the old democracy should be glad that the NSC is being attended only by Musharraf and his Lotas as it will be so easy to end it once Musharraf is gone."
"Till the next general and..."
"And yet another improvement in our democratic institutions."
"Speaking of uniform the President was wearing it when he went to see the flood damage."
"These Baloch I tell you - you have to always show strength with them, any sign of weakness and..."
"In spite of the floods there was complete hartal on Saturday and this time the Baloch didn't mince words. Not against the government or the Chosen One but the military. I think the repeated military interventions have managed to make the military unpopular. It had never happened before."
"There is a first time for every thing."
"But the Opposition is so weak with their leaders out of town so to speak. I mean there must be some kind of rapprochement there. I know BB has met Nawaz Sharif and Nawaz has met two of the Maulanas but things don't seem to be moving and this is when there is lawlessness in several parts of the country, inflation is on the rise, one province is almost in open revolt and another having serious issues with federal policies."
"If only our politicians would shun the politics of Lotaism."
"If wishes were horses and this time around they are not."