“The World Bank hath spoken.”
“Granted that when multilaterals say jump we say how high, a situation that has prevailed from one administration to the next, but what’s with the use of an old English worth…hath.”
“That was in the past, now the multilaterals are giving us limits that are simply not achievable – limits on the targets, and limits on the time that those targets must be met.”
“Right, but you know they complain that previous administrations pledged reforms, challenging political reforms, and then reneged on those reforms as soon as the coffers filled with their loans.”
“Four-time finance ministers versus three-time finance ministers versus two-time finance minister versus……”
“Give me names.”
“Ishaq Dar held the portfolio four times, Hafeez Sheikh three times, Shaukat Tarin twice and the incumbent’s innings has begun recently…”
“But there was no jumping of the platform by Dar sahib…”
“Stop, you know he doesn’t like it when you don’t refer to him as the DPM…”
“You reckon he wanted to have a three-letter portfolio because…”
“Why not? After all, three letter agencies are determining policy all over the world – Iran is referring to Western spy agencies as playing a critical role in fomenting dissent within and…”
“I was being facetious, anyway the World Bank in its infinite wisdom urged Pakistan to fast-track private sector investment…”
“Oh dear – perhaps they need a ground reality injection on an emergency basis. Let me state that it has always been the government and not the private sector that has appropriated the lion’s share of private commercial banks credit; and the incumbent government increased private sector credit last year, but then the money was absorbed by the speculators not the industrial units who were struggling with input costs higher than that of their regional competitors and…”
“Two is enough.”
“And if the multilaterals have to catch the bull by the horns, then they need to monitor current expenditure as opposed to approving a budget this year that envisaged over 18 percent increase in spite of the severe fiscal constraints and…”
“There I agree – I mean don’t these high paid international bureaucrats realize that the world is changing with the US tariffs, weaponising sanctions is rising and the de-dollarization…”
“Hey, they are like our economic team leaders – they got their degrees back when the old order was in force.”
“Right, so perhaps members’ countries should revisit the year when existing decision-making staff got their degrees and…”
“Not gonna happen – that’s why internally, they maintain that institutional memory is the biggest asset.”
“Hmmmm.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026