“There has been a request to set aside around 200,000 dollars.”
“From which account? I mean wouldn’t the International Monetary Fund express some reservations because we did commit to no supplementary grants as part of the programme loan.”
“Hey we have got the staff level agreement, so this issue may surface during the fourth review which is quite a few months away.”
“Constant deferral of agreed conditions is why we have such harsh upfront conditions you know. Besides the Board date has not been set yet and if past precedence is anything to go by the IMF may defer placing the SLA as a Board agenda item which means that we won’t get the 1.2 billion-dollar disbursement.”
“OK, but I will have you know that the 200,000 dollars is to be earmarked for a very important expenditure item that incidentally was not required at the time of the budget.”
“Is it part of the operational expenses pertaining to our engagement with the Taliban?”
“No.”
“For development expenses – I mean the government has already slashed this item…”
“Nope, besides that is the usual annual practice.”
“I should have said it first – it is for subsidizing fuel for domestic consumers?”
“No.”
“If you dare say it is for fuel for the fancy newly bought plane then….”
“No, besides I am talking about a federal allocation?”
“OK I give up what is it for?”
“It’s to take the Western media to court.”
“I agree wholeheartedly – their coverage of the Gaza genocide has been appalling, their coverage of the war with Iran is also not quite accurate and…”
“No that’s not it.”
“I don’t understand – they gave very good coverage to the foreign ministers meeting in Islamabad though I am not sure whether Iran considers the Egyptians, who rely heavily on US foreign assistance, or the Saudis who are being pounded by Iran and so are not pro-Iranian at this time or Türkiye which historically at least has been opposed to Iran…”
“So who would you have invited? The Houthis or Hezbollah or Hamas?”
“You are so bad! No, the point is that the Western media referred to Ishaq Dar as the Foreign Minister, now you and I both know that he takes exception to that – his portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister must follow his name or precede it, and so we need to hire top-notch foreign lawyers to…”
“Don’t be facetious.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026