“So what do you reckon?”

“Poor, poor, people of Pakistan is all I can say.”

“You reckon The Khan…”

“Can I call a spade a spade?”

“I don’t know what else you would call a spade? A super power or an animal or……”

“Hey The Khan’s narrative of US interference and fantastic economic performance during his tenure, or at least better than during the past two months…yeah, yeah, I know you are going to say not fair – he had only 3 and three quarter years to mess it up while the others had much more time but then the same logic applies to this government — not enough time and……”

“You asked me whether you could call a spade a spade…I don’t hear any spades in what you said.”

“Miftah reckons he is the coalition government’s Ace of Spades and that he is winning points for his government by attacking The Khan and he needs a gag order because he is not even close to the stature of The Khan.”

“OK agreed.”

“Another thing is that Miftah keeps talking of The Khan laying some landmines for his successors but I think Miftah has laid his own landmine through the budget…”

“How come?”

“The landmine is that he has presented a budget that does not meet the Fund’s prior conditions for the seventh review. Now if the seventh review is okayed then speculation is that there is the danger of an elections but if the Fund does not declare the seventh review successful…”

“Hmmmmm, so if the seventh review is successful you reckon then the caretakers will come and if Hafeez Sheikh is installed even for three months then I say poor, poor, people of Pakistan. Don’t forget he was the man who signed off on an agreement with the Fund that was at the time opposed by the Secretary Finance for being extremely harsh on the general public — and Sheikh transferred him and began implementing easily reversible policies but couldn’t deliver on structural changes…”

“Well, he didn’t head the energy sector…”

“But he did the tax department and there to he blamed others for failures…”

“And what if The Khan comes back?”

“See I don’t see that happening either, but his narrative that the Sharifs and Zardari sahib’s team are very very corrupt and to replace him with that team…”

“That narrative is working so what? We need a fourth national political party…”

“Yep, let’s put an advertisement in the paper: required a leader with grass root support, committed to democracy, and while working within the status quo but honest and…”

“I can see pigs flying.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022