“We have had five finance ministers, not including The Khan’s Interim man Hammad Azhar, so any commonalities between them?”
“They were all finance ministers.”
“Don’t be facetious.”
“OK, apart from Hafeez Sheikh and Miftah Ismail none of them have the academic background to hold the finance portfolio.”
“It’s not as if Sheikh sorted out the economy, he was fired twice and each time he left the economy in a worse shape than he found it…”
“True OK one commonality between the PML-N finance ministers is their love of the camera…”
“Ah but the question is does the camera love them?”
“Do you really think Dar is going to do things differently this time around?”
“He faces a different situation – I mean in 2013 he took the country from the frying pan into the fire – heavy reliance on foreign borrowing because their cost was lower instead of domestic borrowing, while artificially propping up the rupee at the time…”
“So?”
“Now that we are in the fire so where can he push the economy?”
“You know what is even hotter than fire – hell!”
“Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned and I have it on good authority…”
“I doubt if The Khan’s Third Wife feels the slightest threat from Dar! The man in her sights, so I hear, on occasion wears civilian clothes.”
“Well, all eyes are on tomorrow – let’s see who wins in the bye elections?”
“You mean whoever wins will indicate whether spiritual guidance as opposed to large jalsa crowds not always translating into victory at the polls…”
“Yes and then there is rigging…”
“What about the ruling party’s narrative in the event of losing the seats?”
“They will come up with one don’t worry, our politicians do not shy away from presenting theses that may be illogical or false or…”
“I get it.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022