“My question: did someone tell the IMF that globalisation is on the out-and-out?” “That sounds like what we in the Land of the Pure have grappled with since…since as long as I can remember.”
“I don’t understand your reference.”
“De jure and de facto – letter and spirit.”
“What?”
“The spirit is to strengthen the judiciary, the letter is to ensure…”
“Speaking of letters, I heard another letter was sent by five or was it six of the same Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges who had sent the letter to the now retired Qazi. This time they sent a letter to the Chief Justice of the IHC.”
“Couldn’t they have sent it by social media? I mean, here we have a proactive government dealing with social media and these judges are sending handwritten letters.”
“Don’t be facetious. Besides, they sent the letter during the weekend.”
“So?”
“So if you recall the PML-N doesn’t work on weekends, remember they insisted on seven working days with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf…”
“That was WD Siddiqui, besides the letter was sent to Chief Justice of IHC.”
“WD?”
“Working Day Siddiqui.”
“Hamm anyway, I am sure the Fund staff have heard of Trump’s threat of tariffs on all those countries, or blocs, which have registered a sustained surplus with the US.”
“Hamm so did we?”
“Too small to matter.”
“I don’t think so, it’s a couple of billion dollars.”
“Hey, that’s still more than the foreign direct investment inflows…”
“Shut up.”
“You may see a mountain, but a rat may see a molehill.”
“That’s not the right expression.”
“OK, but the economic team leaders need to revisit with the IMF their pledge to free trade and…”
“If wishes were horses…”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025