“The Khan is particularly enamoured of the idea of hiring experts….wait, wait, let me finish, and I support it fully because our politicians are not experts and make a mess of their portfolios and…”

“Hmmm…”

“There is no reason to look so skeptical – I tell you experts are critical to run government and…”

“Most if not all of our military dictators appointed experts to run the economy and look where it’s at today.”

“Pakistan Peoples’ Party reappointed one of them and look where we are today!”

“Hmmm so did The Khan and God has been kind and the economy has stabilized…”

“Please - the number of spontaneous protests is rising due to inflation and…”

“Those dratted mafias…”

“That’s what an expert does so successfully – externalizes the issues and takes credit for the positive indicators….the rupee is stable thank God and ignore the fact that it is undervalued, the 7 percent discount rate is at the right level and ignore the fact that no one knows what it is pegged to today with consumer price index at 8.4 percent and core inflation at 5.6 percent….the foreign exchange reserves are stable but thank God the primary deficit which excludes incurring massive loans to fund the deficit….”

“Ha ha that’s an expert talking but do you prefer an expert to Dar – simply go to his samdhi and…”

“And excuse me how is that different from what the experts are doing?”

“Well the difference is one of educational qualifications…”

“You are being facetious – anyway I wonder whether the experts are worth their political cost…”

“Yes I know there is speculation that The Khan’s desire to have a show of hands in Senate elections is because he reckons his own senators may not vote for these special assistants and advisors and…”

“What about the political cost of their policies – rising inflation due to land mark deficits and….”

“The Khan has not yet understood 101 of politics: that you need to engage with independent experts to keep a check and balance on the experts you hire, that giving them senate seats would alienate your own party stalwarts who will strike when the chips are down, and that once the chips are down you will be made to pay even if you have not engaged in any corruption – because cases can be filed against you which would take years to reach their logical conclusion and nepotism is a charge that will be fairly easy to prove given poor governance in all sectors and…”

“That lesson will be learned as and when The Khan is no longer the prime minister.”

“That’s true.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021