Partly Facetious: What's a checkmate?

"Hip, hip, hooray The Khan."

"I suppose you heard of the ordinance that would allow the Prime Minister to hire those who plea bargain."

"That's not an ordinance I support; anyway who do you reckon has plea bargained that The Khan would like to hire?"

"Oh I thought you were being sarcastic, Jehangir Tareen plea bargained didn't he?!"

"I didn't know The Khan could play chess."

"Where does chess come in?"

"Well, he gets Jehangir Tareen on the sugar inquiry and then hires him so if that isn't a checkmate what is?!"

"There is an apex court decision against Tareen and..."

"I thought an ordinance trumps all."

"It does till it is challenged in a court."

"I see, but what's with the checkmate?"

"Well there were rumours that after the sugar inquiry report Tareen was going to take his band of merry men and leave the PTI without the numbers to prop up a government in either Punjab or the centre!"

"There is one ingredient that, if missing, will disable any conspiracy, however strong, from engineering a government's downfall."

"Is it performance?"

"Good heavens, are you an overseas Pakistani unaware of what happens here?"

"Is it the scale of corruption, notice I used the word scale."

"No and I am pretty sure you know that if the civilian and military establishment are on the same page and they are right now no one can dislodge a government."

"Actually they are not on the same one page - they are on the same page in a book of 1000 pages."

"Only 1000 pages I would have thought..."

"Don't be facetious. Anyway that's not why I said Hip, Hip Hooray The Khan. You still want to guess?"

"It couldn't be the economy or the energy sector or the... could it be the National Accountability Bureau's recent foray into investigating the Chaudhry Brothers?"

"No silly, Meera is back from the US, she had appealed publicly to be brought back; and you brush up on your English before she shows you up again."