PARTLY FACETIOUS: The WB mission in Pakistan

"It's all about timing or lack thereof!"

"I thought corona and the associated lockdown, however smart..."

"You know if The Khan ever offers me a place on his team I will urge him to get rid of the World Bank mission in Pakistan..."

"Are you mad? No, I should not ask that as a question but state it as a fact."

"You mean to say that The Khan would never ever offer me a place on his team! Well, let me tell you that he has Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif, Zardari and Altaf Hussain acolytes on his team..."

"You make it sound so bad, but my friend many of those are the same - I mean they go from one government to another, so really you need to disregard party changes and focus on who is in government..."

"Right, but what do you have to offer The Khan? Love for him, he reckons the entire country still loves him notwithstanding the latest petrol bomb he let loose on the public, and your name doesn't have an ain (24th letter of the Urdu alphabet) which has properties you wouldn't believe, and..."

"I have changed my name."

"I reckon there is a requirement that you have to be born with the name...anyway The Khan isn't in any position to say absolutely not to any multilateral - we need their money - but why this sudden anger at the Bank? I mean they are a bunch of bureaucrats with an international NRO so you can't take them to task for their recommending flawed policies or anything and..."

"The Khan says smart lockdown, his deputy Asad Umar says smart lockdown and the World Bank in its latest report has said micro lockdown and that is not acceptable, that is a political statement and..."

"Dear, dear me, anyway The Khan's timing is way off and I would have thought that as a sportsman he knew the value of timing. I mean on the 31 October he rejects the summary raising price of petrol then announces 30 percent subsidy on ghee, pulses and wheat a few hours after the price of these items is raised by retailers and then on 4 November he ups the price of petrol..."

"So what would you have done?"

"Announced the price rise of petrol on 31 October."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021