“I was saddened.” “By what?” “The appointment of yet another revolving finance minister.” “Hey look at the glass as half full.”
“Well she is at least not an accountant.”
“Right and thank the Lord for that. And you must not forget that she has yet to do a Musaddaq Malik.”
“Where does he come in?”
“He transitioned from a caretaker to a party loyalist and retained a ministry.”
“Ah yes indeed, so the incumbent finance minister is an interim finance minister?”
“That’s not quite the right word.”
“I don’t get it – she is there for as long as the caretakers are.”
“True but an interim finance minister, to my mind, is someone who fills the boots of another or till such a time that the other makes himself available.”
“Right so Miftah Ismail was an interim finance minister. As was Hammad Azhar and can you categorize Asad Umar as an interim finance minister?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I would rather you don’t use those two words – they are very specific and relate to our relations with the US that range from turbulent at one end of the spectrum to I guess transactional to…”
“OK I get it. But you have to admit that Asad Umer was unique in that he was the only finance minister who was dismissed with a tweet.’”
“That’s certainly true. But….”
“Hey there is no but. Let him be, he is not in the good books of The Man Who Must Not Be Named anymore so the possibility of his ever being given that portfolio is zero.”
“Right, anyway the incumbent finance minister has one thing in common with a non-caretaker, appointed by multiple parties, revolving finance minister: Hafeez Sheikh.”
“Their exposure to multlilaterals?”
“Hmmmm.”
“What?”
“Do not think despondent thoughts my friend.”
“Right!”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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