All countries cook the fiscal books to a greater or lesser degree.
MCLEAN, VA, US: This is with reference to your report of April 26 titled “‘IMF considers Pakistan’s economic managers deceitful’”. What is being said in the report is nothing new. In my time, Pakistan self-confessed to fiddling the fiscal books. Since this was done during an ongoing IMF programme and the drawings were made under false data, Pakistan had to return millions of dollars to the IMF. It was a humiliating experience. However, the fact is that all countries cook the fiscal books to a greater or lesser degree (including our great neighbour next door). It is sometimes called ‘financial engineering’. Most get away with it.
We confessed. I don’t know why, perhaps we should ask Shaukat Aziz.
Meekal Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2011.
