This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial “Hafeez Sheikh: ignominious exit” carried by the newspaper yesterday. His is an ignominious removal is a fact. This major economic/political development has taken place less than three months prior to the presentation of the next fiscal year’s budget. The government has tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to create an impression that the Sheikh of Shikarpur’s ouster is part of an overall reshuffle plan by redesignating former KE chief Tabish Gauhar as Special Assistant to PM on power and petroleum. Sheikh happens to be the second finance minister the PTI-led coalition government has fired since it came to power nearly three years ago; prime minister Imran Khan, however, had ultimately retained Asad Umar the then finance minister and a Member of National Assembly, who remained out of the Cabinet nearly 8 months, in his team, relegating him from top position to that of a one-down batsman in team’s batting order. Opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto, among others, has described Hafeez Sheikh’s defeat in the recent Senate election as the reason for his dismissal from cabinet. He may be right.

(To be continued)

Sohail Rajpar (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021