Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Handling the economy remained an unsettled issue between troubled ruling party’s autocrat head Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, as the former was not willing to relieve Ishaq Dar as finance minister in any case, Daily Times learnt on Wednesday.

According to well-placed sources, PM Abbasi was caught between a rock and a hard place over the issue of finance minister. Disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has returned through a PPP sponsored enactment, has been marching fast in defiance mode insistent upon keeping Ishaq Dar as finance minister. Dar being a close ally as well as relative of Sharif declined to resign despite being declared as absconder by an anti-graft court in addition to his health issues. At the same time, internal as well external quarters that matter have been telling PM Abbasi and other so-called saner elements within the ruling party that Pakistan’s economy at the current juncture essentially needed a full-time, cleaner in political terms and more credible finance minister to run the ministry, the sources added.

“Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had in the first place pointed out correlation of security and economy in a clear reference to zero choice for compromises on economic governance of a country fighting an unconventional war against terrorism,” a source recalled the mid-October comment. Similarly, sources said, international financial institutions (IFIs) had been conveying to the government that having an indicted finance minister was not a respectable way to interact in a multilateral paradigm. The IFIs do matter in dependent economies such as Pakistan, the sources added.

The sources dubbed media reports about Ishaq Dar’s leave application letter or/and phone call from London to PM Abbasi as an effort to cover up the tug-of-war within the ruling PML-N over the issue of the top economy manager.

The sources confirmed that PM Abbasi was not happy with Sharif’s idea of granting Dar a sick leave and managing of the economy by the so-called advisory council, the sources added. In sacking Dar, the incumbent prime minister may have the support of Shehbaz Sharif, the Punjab chief minister and younger brother of the ex-PM, and also that of the so-called Chaudhry Nisar group within the PML-N, the sources said. “But the law after the 18th Constitutional Amendment empowers a party head, be that Nawaz Sharif, to sack any of the member, even the incumbent prime minister,” the sources maintained.

“Even though the situation seems to be favouring Nawaz Sharif since he has already exploited a new enactment to return as party head despite being disqualified by the apex court, it looks impossible to sustain like that, given the cases against him and others,” a source opined.

Published in Daily Times, November 23^rd 2017.