Just before Partition, a coalition government of all India Muslim League and Indian National Congress was formed in which finance ministry was given to Liaquat Ali Khan. An uphill task was accepted by Muslim bureaucrats, who made the first Indian budget that was truly described as the poor man's budget. To protect feudal interests, Congress leaders vigorously sought the removal of some anti-feudal measures but Liaquat Ali Khan stood by his budget.

Soon after Partition, same set of bureaucrats remained in power for a decade and then from Mohammad Shoaib onward to date we have compromised on financial managers because of which we have now reached a point of no return. T-Bills investment by commercial banks has promoted; different corrupt practices were also seen in the past.

The present team of economic managers is trying harder to remove stuck wheels of productivity. It has therefore launched the questionable hot money pursuit on very high rate of interest. Rumour had it that this is being done to facilitate our own 'money mafias' who laundered their bad money and parked it abroad. It will now start arriving in foreign exchange on more than 13 percent interest rate.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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