And but, and but, and but…” he mimics cruelly to emphasize that everyone can change and also change society, and here I take a breath and say “that you can’t buck the system and the system wears you down or or wipes you out. He doesn’t agree. He likes to have a group of about thirty people with himself “as a pillar of strength.”

Zia is a behavioural guru (he is an advanced level instructor of The Breakthrough Programme), he understands body language, the elisions of the spoken word, the concealment behind the verbiage and as a journalist he knows the tricks that an interviewer uses to elicit responses. “People have to change. They must challenge, question, change their attitudes.

Begums must learn to communicate better. It is no use saying the air-conditioning has broken down, kids don’t listen to me, the servants don't listen to me, the heat is unbearable and so forth…look at the maasis who go to work in the heat and the dust, they deserve some consideration too. Ordinary people can be very helpful…” and he cites the example of how he knocked at some stranger’s door and asked if he could use their phone to call up his mum in Quetta as he was feeling homesick and how he was warmly received.

Forgive me for being cynical, but maasis have been conning me for years, and any stranger who finds a charming young man prefacing his every sentence with “sir” in a posh Brit accent would very probably not only allow him to use his phone, but also offer him the use of his e-mail facility, the mobile (and if he had a couple of young daughters to marry off) insist on his staying to lunch and dinner and possibly even breakfast. But Zia is also an unexpected man. I admired his egalitarianism, or at least his desire to feel at one with what is generally referred to by that faceless term ‘the downtrodden masses.’

He is as eager as a child when the talk gets around to books and writing. His collection of short stories “In the Ruins of Solitude” was well received despite it being an introverted and sometimes harrowing account of the darker side of life "but I am more focussed now” he says “I am in the middle of planning and writing a novel.” He won’t discuss the theme or the style but muses that he may also write, in tandem, a handbook on his self-improvement programme.

He is very vocal about Salman Rushdie. He doesn’t like him. Arundhati Roy didn't deserve the Booker and he doubts if she will be able to sustain her writing ability. He is articulate, refreshingly honest “I never ever follow trends. I like to shock people.” He does a marvelous and dramatic reading of a passage from his book. “I never undertake anything that I don't feel confident about.

Writing is all about sensitivity, connecting, intellect and ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas…you can be very fluent with a language, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are able to express yourself in writing. Urdu is also a very expressive language – you can be very sarcastic, very subtle.” He speaks several languages including Punjabi, Balochi and French.

Today, Zia is exuding so much confidence that it is overpowering and I do wonder if he is in his Leader of the Breakthrough Programme mode. In this role he helps losers become winners. He urges them with absolute certainty that they can break out of the mould of being a victim. He urges them to let it all hang out. Hold on a moment – aren’t we already an intensely emotional people? What happens at his seminars? I imagine a roomful of thirty people, mainly women all in high hysteria and here is this man encouraging them to to let it all hang out while he exudes this unshakable confidence and strength.

It must be very draining. “It is! It is!” he says “But I am always there to prop up things.” He wants everyone to interact, to unite as Pakistanis, be one as a nation and as a people.” This is a surprisingly conservative side of Zia, considering that he is so radical in all other ways.