Partly Facetious: Economic managers

"See you get an economist and you have out of the box innovative thinking."

"Out of the box, innovative thinking? Who are you referring to?"

"I know you are being facetious because you know I am referring to the top economic decision maker in the country today."

"Reza Baqir? No one - not former governors of the State Bank of Pakistan, not economists, independent or otherwise, not members of the business community, hey not even the Hafeez Sheikh -chaired advisory council - has endorsed his 9 percent discount rate!"

"I thought Hafeez Sheikh did not mention the discount rate during that meeting and..."

"The Ministry of Finance issued the press release so Sheikh got the message out. By the way the council members are no longer the Originals, and here I am referring to the members hand- picked by Imran Khan soon after he assumed reins of government though if truth be told he opted to take many who had been members of such a council during previous administrations as they were apolitical..."

"That's funny, being apolitical in Pakistan with respect to membership of a prestigious entity!"

"Yeah, but The Khan in his selections of council members was not poaching but inducting those with a proven record in previous administrations."

"Like in his cabinet, so competence over...over...ideology?"

"Hey the supreme leader requires one ideology from long term members and lotas (defined as those who roll over from one party to the one in power): praise all things that the government does and bad mouth all that happened during previous administrations."

"Oh dear, here we go again! Anyway when I said if you get an economist you get out of the box innovative thinking I was not referring to Baqir but to Hafeez Sheikh."

"Oh really! What has he done that has you so enamoured? I mean he has adhered to all IMF projections in writing, growth rate of 2.4 percent in the budget documents but told the media that the rate would be higher than 3 percent, he took BISP from other developed expenditure to grants and transfers in the current expenditure, he raised existing taxes and failed to widen the net..."

"That last is Shabbar Zaidi's fault and Zaidi was The Khan's man and..."

"Really! I mean here is Sheikh opposing the appointment of anyone as Minister of Revenue but when tax revenue target that he agreed to with the IMF is not met you say its Zaidi's fault!"

"That shows he is a blue blooded bureaucrat. Anyway reports indicate that Sheikh has recommended a Corona tax on the super rich and that is innovative isn't it!"

"Please open the net and you will see that a previous administration, where Sheikh was not a cabinet member, imposed a defense tax which was rejected by the people, then Dar imposed a tax on the super rich and that was rejected too and I will be surprised if someone won't go to court against this tax also and..."

"This dratted net makes research so easy! Get rid of the net I say!"

"Indeed that's the solution to Pakistan's economic woes!"

"Don't be facetious."