Throughout the world, people use humor to deal with trying times. Pakistan is no different.

I was in a lawyer’s office this morning, and the conversation turned to the difficult situation in the country, where blackouts are common, and shortages of flour and cooking oil have people grumbling about President Pervez Musharraf, the U.S.-backed president who is deeply unpopular.

“Have you heard the latest joke making the rounds?” he asked, pulling out his mobile phone and reading the joke being sent around as a text message. He read it:

“A man catches a fish. His wife says, ‘I can’t cook it. There’s no gas, no electricity, no flour and no cooking oil.’ So the man puts the fish back in the river. The fish leaps out of the water and shouts: Long Live Musharraf!”

I searched for other humor, and found this:

“Musharraf agreed to allow Scotland Yard to investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Why not the CIA? It would have tortured the witnesses, burned the tapes and concluded that Benazir Bhutto fired first.”