"Joint Secretary Ministry of Energy and Deputy Managing Director Pakistan State Oil must be given a medal of...of..."
"Honour?"
"I would hope not, there is no honour in not being aware of facts. The two stated during the Public Accounts Committee meeting that the government is considering issuing sukuk of 200 billion rupees. Didn't anybody tell these two guys that the government is not being allowed to give the guarantee required for the purpose as it is not allowed to provide sovereign guarantees in excess of 2 percent of GDP and we have already surpassed that?"
"Hey, no one is aware of facts in this country, not the Prime Minister, not his Advisor on Finance who negotiated on flawed data for last year with the International Monetary Fund, revised data was recently released by the Ministry he heads; and then there is the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan who should really have a look at the State Bank website because it shows that the real effective exchange rate is now undervalued by 10..."
"Hey these are guys who were lured to take over the economic team!"
"Not much of luring was required given the massive increase in their standing and protocol and..."
"Why ever did The Khan agree to appoint them? Hafeez Sheikh has never negotiated a package with the IMF and...and wait after his three years as the country's finance minister, the country needed to go back on the IMF programme in 2013 while Governor SBP has never been responsible for any country's monetary policy and..."
"With respect to Sheikh's performance in his previous avatar, the fault lies with Zardari sahib - he was not willing to implement the IMF conditions and viola, the IMF suspended the programme, so the only reason the Khan administration gave him the job is perhaps that when the going got tough..."
"It's extremely tough now!"
"For you maybe, but not for the government; or not yet; in spite of a thin majority in parliament The Khan is sitting pretty and no threat from anywhere is visible so with the release of the new data Sheikh may give a fait accompli to the Fund..."
"He is not that kind of guy, he may butter up the Fund staff and then humbly request a revisit of the conditions that, if the Fund's targets are to be met, would be even rougher on you and me and..."
"Oh dear me! Why do we continue to hire those who have not shown good performance in the past!"
"Why indeed!"