The bond market barely blinked at the rather unceremonious departure of Hafeez Sheikh from the finance ministry as the government happily raised $2.5 billion three dollar bonds of five, 10 and 30 years from international capital markets in what was the first such outing since the PTI government took office. If anything, the resumption of the IMF program and commitment of $1.3 billion from the World Bank improved investor confidence which pushed returns down. All in all, even though the interest rate offered was still pretty lucrative, this venture does mark a successful return to the bond market and an alternate platform for raising debt in very trying times. Perhaps Hafeez Sheikh’s ouster could have been handled better. Since the information minister said he was shown the door because of his inability to control runaway inflation, especially in essential items, the implication seems that the rupee was allowed to fall a little too much and might be on its way up again. But isn’t that the jurisdiction of the central bank rather than the finance ministry? There is also talk that some of the conditions that he agreed with in order to get the IMF program back on track were a little too harsh for the prime minister to go along with, and that ultimately led to their parting of ways. Either way, it would have been better this had been worked out nicely after he lost the Senate election and lost the confidence of his own party. The need now is to look forward. It might be asking a little too much of the new minister to put a lid on prices as soon as he steps into his new assignment. The market forces that the government has been unable to control so far have to do with artificial manipulation of supply and demand, which require action from parts of the state machinery far beyond the limits of the finance ministry. But now that investor confidence has been restored, the first order of things must be to ensure that this playing field is maintained. That of course needs stability. So hopefully we have seen the last reshuffling at Q Block and the focus for the rest of the electoral cycle will be on restoring growth and reducing prices. *