A man goes fishing and nets a big fish. He takes it home, but his wife declines to cook it, complaining that there is no wheat flour, cooking fat is too expensive and the electricity has been gone for three hours. Dismayed, he throws his catch back into the river.
A moment later, the fish pops up and shouts: 'Hail, Musharraf!'
Economic revival was one of the great success stories of Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, ousting then premier Nawaz Sharif.
Gross domestic product has been growing at an average rate of 7.5 per cent for five years, the main stock index rose 40 per cent last year and the country drew a record S$8.5 billion of foreign investment last year.
But a combination of factors has led to widespread economic hardship, adding discontent to resentment about his political missteps such as last year's firing of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Petrol prices have jumped, wheat is in short supply and Pakistanis suffer blackouts lasting as long as six hours because electricity production has not kept up with demand.
Pakistani consumer prices last month were 11.86 per cent higher than a year earlier - the biggest annual increase in more than a decade. Food prices were up 18.25 per cent.
'Musharraf has brought us economic disaster,' said Mr Imran Khattak, a migrant from Peshawar living in Islamabad. 'My whole family is going to vote for Ms Bhutto's party.'
Meanwhile, Britain's Independent on Sunday newspaper quoted Mr Musharraf as saying that he would act as a 'father figure' to the country's new premier.
He also said the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-e-Azam party which supports him would 'certainly have the majority' after today's vote, although he questioned whether it could form a government.
RAVI VELLOOR