A top financial daily has expressed doubts over whether Pakistan''s newly appointed Finance Adviser Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh can do better than his predecessor Shaukat Tarin in the economic governance of Pakistan. According to Financial Times, the failure to push reforms harder will lead to a tougher approach by the IMF.
But it will disappoint many western donors including those, like the US and Europe, faced with a list of requests for preferential market access, accelerated delivery of funds and resources to fix the chronic power deficit. The government has turned to Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, a former World Bank official, as its financial adviser. When he oversees the announcement of the budget, at least he can claim the failures are not his own. "But whether he can do better than Mr Tarin is doubtful," the newspaper says in its article titled "Failure to implement reforms troubles donors".