The FM sent packing

The Finance Minister Asad Umar has quit. Is it a good decision? That will depend on who replaces him.

There is little doubt that the decision appears ill-timed. The tough time has well passed, now the stabilization period is about to start. The IMF programme is about to be finalized, the budget is around the corner and an amnesty scheme is in the offing.

But Asad has not much to show in terms of performance in the last eight months. He was the only obvious choice at any ministry in PTI camp, apart from the PM, for years. He was part of the Senate Finance Committee while PTI was in opposition. He knew the numbers and had a fair idea of what economic mess he was going to inherit. Yet, he took many months to make a core economic team, and still the team is incomplete.

He did not change a weak finance secretary for many months. The DG debt appointment took many months and the advisor to FM position which was advertised a few months back has yet not been filled. He does come across as an intelligent person with strong analytical skills, but he probably lacked trustworthy people in his core team.

But not all the blame can be passed to him as tough economic decisions - such as currency and interest rates movements were the order of the day, and he became a scapegoat.

However, his core performance is to be judged on decisions he took in finance ministry or as the head of ECC and CCoE. There were a few decisions which were not taken well by the market. His first move was an attempt to recover the windfall profits from fertilizer, but nothing has been done so far on it. Similarly, he attempted to open up the case of Engro RLNG terminal, for no use. Later, the gas prices fiasco was signed under him, which was initiated by the petroleum ministry. But the buck stops at him, as one cannot expect much from the petroleum minister (who may be shown the door himself too).

He basically picked the wrong battles right from the onset and lacked a vibrant team. But just when he seemed to be at the right track with team building taking place, he was asked to leave. The business community too, has not taken it well, questioning the timing of the decision, and demanding for the entire setup in Asad’s team and the bureaucrats around to be shown the door too. It surely was not his failure alone.