Rendezvous in Paris
The writer is a retired professional based in Canada
If ever the metaphorical ‘Shahbaz Speed’ was badly needed, it was to resolve the ninth review with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It would probably be a bit unfair to shift the entire blame on the prime minister, but the buck stops with him. However, Shahbaz Sharif wilted under pressure from Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz had to change horses midstream. A level-headed economist, Miftah Ismail, close to successfully concluding negotiations with IMF was unceremoniously shown the door. Ishaq Dar, an accountant by profession, proved a dark horse right from the day he was ushered in for the difficult and specialist job of the finance minister of a country at the brink of default. Without being mindful of a changed global geopolitical environment, Dar showed uncalled for aggression from the first day and unnecessarily vexed IMF by using intemperate language, especially as a minister who was begging for finances. If his emotive and exuberant statements were aimed at local consumption, Dar forgot that nowadays news travels faster than the speed of light. It was enough for IMF to leave Pakistan languishing in poverty for demonising their institution.
Shahbaz Sharif’s humiliating admission on the national media using an Urdu proverb ‘naak se lakeeren khiicwanay ke baad bhi’ (the closest English translation would probably be that, even after toiling through our nose), IMF is not signing the staff level agreement and keeps on adding some new conditionalities. No wonder the prime minister of a nuclear country made an hour-long call to the Managing Director of IMF to reaffirm that beggars can’t be choosers. I am not privy to his telephonic discussion (although sooner or later his audio may be released) but I can say with certainty that the message was: Jo de us ka bhi bhala or jo na de us ka bhi bhala. In English, it would be: Bless if you give and bless if you don’t.
But icing on the cake was Shabaz Sharif’s recent meeting with IMF’s Managing Director in Paris where she was imperiously seated facing our prime minister who obsequiously gazed at her. All this humiliation for a tranche of 1.1 billion dollars and a nod for a new IMF programme to maintain our ICU status. The optics of the meeting brings an apt phrase to mind. The beggar of the first order meeting the lender of the last resort. Obviously not for the last time though.
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on the other hand, received royal treatment at the White House. US President Joe Biden failed to bring up the topic of human rights and persecution of minorities with the state guest despite a charge sheet in a letter signed by seventy-five members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The exhaustive and impressive communique issued by the White House has literally reimagined and glorified India on the map of the world. Pakistan is as usual mentioned in there as a breeding land for terrorists. What have we done to our country? I wish we learn from history before it is too late, and we are consigned to the dustbin.
The country is not at the crossroads anymore but in dire straits. And if there is some realisation, the existential threat is hanging like a Damocles’ sword over our heads. The politicians consisting of the elite class are busy fighting for their vested interests like vultures hovering over a carcass. A quote from Noam Chomsky appears to mirror our character perfectly. “So, we march on, following our leaders, toward an Armageddon of our own making.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2023.
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