I was actually going to respond to what you wrote and might agree with 'some' of your points, but this totally caught me off guard. If you really think he is the most capable person we have, then God help us indeed!
Do you not realize that the man of the moment for Imran Khan was, and still is Shaukat Tarin? How many times have I personally mentioned on this forum what this man has done to his own Bank? A person who could not manage his own Bank was given the reigns of Finance for the entire country. In the recent past, and within available human resources, who else has performed as exceptionally as Dar? Dar was the one who was bringing in all the FDI and he was the one who had proposed and setup SEZ's all over Pakistan with special attractions to foreign investors; Dar was the one who setup the foundation for industry and export not just by investing and ensuring that surplus power was available to all industries (as opposed to 18+ hours of load shedding during PPP era) but also through special incentives such as tax holidays, subsidized land grants etc., to FDI......investment in Pakistan was picking up, our growth was getting better and all industries were flourishing when Dar was removed in 2017 after which everything went downhill and still continues to go downhill. We hit our peak in 2017 and we are nowhere close to it after 5 years.
But you will have to consider him objectively and not with political lenses. He is accused of siphoning off Billions of USD (estimated 11 Billion?), he is accused of burning Billions of USD (8-12 estimated) just to keep the PKR artificially stable at 104; he is accused of massive corruption and he was providing subsidies on electricity and many other things worth many more Billions of PKR etc. Despite all that, most investment by Pakistan in CPEC projects, and delivery of Projects from power plants to GLOC etc., all started and completed under Dar. He must have been a magician to steal and ML 11 Billion USD, burn another 8-12 Billion USD, provide hundreds of Billions of PKR in subsidies, leave over 11 Billion in reserves (as opposed to 4 Billion by PTI) before net payables which would render reserves down to 9 Billion (and a mere 2 Billion by PTI).
Agreed in principle. But does that mean you just throw it away to anyone of your choosing with total disregard for the rules and procedures?
The SOE's being sold to Gulf countries has absolutely nothing to do with govt restructuring itself, or taking a strategic shift in management, or cutting losses. It has all to do with us needing $4 billion, and the Gulf countries having us by the balls so to speak, and we need to accept whatever demands they have, else the IMF won't go through with the agreement.
To end, I would just like to ask you this question. If you are a wealthy person, and a shopkeeper comes to you and he wants to renovate his shop and asks you for a loan, but then you find out that the ownership of the shop is in dispute itself and there are high chances the guy will not be the shopkeeper next week or next month, will you give him a loan?
If you consider selling shares to the Governments of UAE and Saudi Arabia as throwing away then I have no argument. But specifically on rules and procedures, our rules and procedures are not only severely outdated and redundant, they are a menace and allow intrusion from other organs which causes us significant overall losses. Examples are Pakistan Steel Mills which Musharraf tried to privatize but was prevented by Ch. Iftikhar and which has ended up costing us hundreds of Billions of PKR (a much bigger cumulative net loss every year even if the SOE was being sold cheaply). After that, Rekodig was another matter in which the Courts needlessly invaded and which nearly cost us 6-8 Billion USD in penalties (avoided only by handing over the Lion's share to Tethyan) and that too after spending tens of Millions of USD in legal processes and lost revenue of Billions of USD over the years. The IPP and Turkish ship based Power Plants is another saga which was resolved only due to the good graces of the Turkish President which would otherwise have cost us many more hundreds of millions of USD in penalties because of Sovereign Guarantees but which the courts were too stupid to understand. PIA, Pakistan Railways and many other SOE need private management to turn them around and to free them from politics into profit making entities even if they are initially sold at cheaper value.
I would say that the Gulf countries have given us too much so even if they now squeeze, they are justified. We could not stand on our own feet in 75 years and repeatedly go back to the Gulf countries for help and handouts; without giving anything back in return. If only we had provided military support, we could have been so much better off financially as then we could have negotiated a handsome bailout from Saudi Arabia.
The answer to your question is NO; I will not provide a loan to the Shop keeper if his ownership is disputed. But lets build more on that and if, after elections, when Imran Khan is forced to make a Government with the help of PPP and if PML and some other parties too are strong in the assemblies and oppose everything that Imran Khan does to ensure that the country is financially and politically instable, which Imran Khan has been doing ever since PML came to power in 2013......what would the result be?
