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By Owen Bennett Jones
BBC News, Jawlaia
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As the oppressive summer heat bears down on the Pakistani village of Jawlaia, life moves at a languid pace.
Stone mason Mohammad Sadiq blames the government for high prices
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Elderly men with flowing robes and turbans carry bundles of firewood to their homes.
Women carry bundles of grass on their heads to family courtyards shared by children and livestock.
It looks idyllic but life in Jawlaia is not easy.
It may take just one hour to reach the village from Islamabad but the two places are separated by a huge economic divide.
In the capital, the country's wealthy elite has spent a second day discussing what to do after the resignation of President Musharraf.
His long, drawn-out exit from office has left something of a power vacuum - for the moment the government is weak, divided and ineffective.
And for Pakistan's politicians, the most urgent question is who will emerge and be the next strongman.
But away from the smoke-filled political salons, most Pakistanis have very different concerns.
The majority live in the countryside, where social and economic indicators make bleak reading.
Widow Maqsooda Baig says she has mounting bills
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Jawlaia, in North West Frontier Province, is home to 8,000 people and it should be thriving.
It has plenty of water and fertile soil which the villagers use to grow oranges, wheat and maize.
But the people of Jawlaia are not happy.
"Because of this new government, the economy is out of control. Everything has become so expensive," said stone mason Mohammad Sadiq.
"Musharraf put the army into the flour mills to control prices. But with this government everything is out of control."
Mr Sadiq works for eight hours every day chiselling blocks of rock into bowls for grinding corn.
The electricity supply in Jawlaia is intermittent - it is off around half the time.
Tough times
Because of plentiful rain, the village has enjoyed good crops this year. Even so, farmers say it is tough to make ends meet.
Since her husband died two years ago, Maqsooda Baig has had to look after her two teenage daughters on her own.
Each day she gathers grass for her cow, puts it in a huge bundle on her head and walks back home.
But she says the cow is still too young to produce much milk and she is left with mounting bills.
Mullah Mohammed Tayyib says the poor need government help
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"It is very difficult to manage because inflation is so high," she said.
Jawlaia has four mosques and the Mullah in one of them, Mohammed Tayyib, gets a weekly congregation of 200 to 300.
He said that villagers come to him complaining that they are not managing to provide for their families.
"What people want from the government is relief for the poor," he said.
Rising global fuel and oil prices have hit Pakistan hard.
Former President Musharraf has insisted that his government oversaw years of economic growth and that the new civilian government is to blame for the worsening economic conditions.
The new government blames the military for giving it a disastrous economic legacy and in particular for failing to build more power plants to meet a growing demand for electricity.
Some villagers are willing to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt saying it is too soon to know whether it will address their needs.
But like many Pakistanis they are not very hopeful that the political elite really will deliver higher living standards.
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