PARTLY FACETIOUS: All our finance ministers have been rich!

“The Khan has delivered on his pledge…”

“Oh dear! This is not the time to be facetious you know, things are going out of hand — the rupee is eroding, the stock market — not the playground of the poor or even middle income earners…”

“Hey all our finance ministers have referred to the stock market as an indicator of…”

“Because all our finance ministers have been rich.”

“You may have something in that! I mean when Dar sahib was an accountant he was Minister of Commerce but when he became very wealthy he was made the finance minister…then there is Hafeez Sheikh, OK his money is sourced to a long career in an international institution where you pay no taxes which may explain why he failed in tax reforms….”

“That was not his fault, it was those dratted people in the FBR, in any case you know as well as that Dar’s portfolio changed after a marriage.”

“Right and Asad Umar worked for a big fertilizer company and there is a lot of money in fertilizers as The Buzz made us aware and…”

“It wasn’t just a fertilizer company you know…”

“OK, but he is a moneyed man right?”

“That’s a relative statement — not as moneyed as say Tareen and Aleem Khan…”

“Tareen the estranged!”

“Nope, Tareen the not estranged yet, the last finance minister, who either sold his bank or is in the process of selling his bank and that my friend doesn’t indicate he is poor.”

“Right, he is not eligible for Benazir Income Support Programme but anyway the pledge I was referring to that The Khan delivered is he has created a new Pakistan…”

“Right, never in our fledgling democracy has a civilian prime minister flouted rules of business of the national assembly so blatantly…”

“That’s not The Khan – a man educated in Oxford isn’t going to do something like that though I hear Montecito…”

“And my response to you: dash dash dash…”

“Oh dear, anyway that is not what I meant when I said The Khan has delivered a new Pakistan. What I meant was he has divided the Chaudhary camp which no one succeeded in before.”

“Ha ha, indeed that is true and I reckon daddy Elahi has gone a tad too far to back down but seriously with 10 seats in a house of 371 he thinks he can win…”

“That my friend is ambition — not like Caesar’s ambition but like…like Cassius, the chief plotter…”

“Let me quote Robert Kennedy to you: every generation inherits a world it never made; and, as it does, it automatically becomes the trustee of that world for those who come after.”

“Did you just quote an American? Off with your head.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022