“So were you happy with the optics?” “Well the best optics in our country’s history were provided by The Man Who Must Remain Nameless…”
“Not only Nameless but also Faceless. If you talk optics then isn’t that a more relevant observation”.
“I take strong exception to that. Notification Maryam Nawaz (NMN) has spent a fortune on improving her optics if you know what I mean so how can you say the best optics are provided by The Nameless and Faceless?”
“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, so an individual thing and my advice is: let’s not make this also into a partisan subject. I mean we are an extremely divisive society today from a political perspective so desist from making it even more divisive.”
“Fair enough but I wasn’t referring to the optics of those two – the Nameless/Faceless and those reliant on notifications.”
“OK so what were you referring to? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon”?
“Excuse me?”
“Ishaq Dar, his tummy is hanging out these days like the hanging gardens of Babylon and the belt he uses to contain it, on occasion, is as ineffective as…as…as…”
“His ability to check the rupee dollar parity artificially”
“Well let’s call a spade a spade – he does manage to control the rate but not its massive negative fallout on the economy. One question though,: the case against him has been restored so his assets…”
“What the hanging gardens of Babylon?”
“Don’t be facetious. I mean has he surrendered the properties and money and what not that were returned to him after the amendments in the National Accountability Ordinance on 26 May 2022?”
“I would think not, anyway going back to the subject of good optics, I was referring to the handshake between the International Monetary Fund Managing Director and Kakar who wouldn’t let go of her hand till all the photographs were clicked…”
“I admit he held her hand a tad too long and she did look uncomfortable but…but wait his rationale for going to attend the UN General Assembly at the taxpayers’ expense was to meet her and convince her to ease or phase out the harsh upfront conditions….”
“So he is the third guy who is seeking a reprieve for the people while using the peoples’ money to attend the United Nations General Assembly event…that makes it a hat-trick!”
“Nope more – there was Shaukat Tarin who tried and failed, followed by Miftah Ismail who tried and failed followed by Dar who never tried and brought the country close to the brink of default, and now Kakar so quadruple…can I say trick?”
“No the trick never worked and the lesson was never learned.”
“Pakistani portfolio holders never ever consider the history of their predecessors, only their own.”
“Some don’t even learn from their own mistakes…anyway Kakar perhaps thought he was following Shehbaz Sharif who forged a deal with the Fund rather than the lower ranked finance ministers.”
“Perhaps”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023