PARTLY FACETIOUS: What merits strict punitive action?

"The World Bank has done it again and this merits strict punitive action."

"Perhaps a negotiated settlement, I mean the Bank gives us a lot of money at concessional rates so we just cannot..."

"You know our negotiators need to be trained. I mean they have changed frequently and then changed again and the last ones in are always extremely amenable to the other side's point of view if you know what I mean..."

"Hey back off, anyway going back to the World Bank they did a grave disservice to the Khan administration by giving us many, many upgrades in 2019 in ease of doing business."

"Why is that a disservice? Incidentally The Khan and his team are still crowing about it but what was our rating in 2020 and 2021?"

"Well the World Bank couldn't respond to legitimate queries as to how Pakistan had improved so dramatically in ease of doing business while total productivity was declining - if you recall pre-Covid 19 large scale manufacturing growth was in the negative..."

"Ha ha, I think I know where you are going with this - somebody needs to tell The Khan and his team that the ease of doing business survey stands abandoned."

"Indeed, anyway The Khan cited the World Bank report released last week that poverty incidence measured at international poverty line of US dollar line of 1.90 purchasing power parity 2011 per day, is expected to have declined to 4.8 percent in FY 21 from 5.3 percent in FY 20."

"Hey that's positive or so said The Khan, his Ehsaas Programme and panahgahs and..."

"But the World Bank added, though no one mentioned it to The Khan, that this change is not statistically significant. And downside risks arising from lockdown disruptions to employment and high food inflation remain."

"This is not acceptable - off with the World Bank's..."

"Hush, anyway the report adds that poverty is expected to continue declining reaching 4 percent by FY 2023."

"So that has to be good hunh!"

"Yes, but it adds that all estimates are subject to Pakistan remaining on the IMF programme."

"Uh oh, so higher utility charges fuelling higher inflation, contracting monetary policy leading to lower productivity and higher unemployment and...."

"Finally you get it now hopefully so will The Khan team in time."

"In time is how long?"

"That is for me to say and you to find out."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021