Tricky agenda setting!

I just could not convince myself for staying put in Parliament House, when the national assembly speaker announced a 20-minute break for the evening prayer.

One seriously felt cheated; for the newspapers I had read Monday morning prepared me for a 'stormy sitting.' Prominently displayed was a single-column 'news'. Through the same, the PML-N media managers had manipulated people like me to believe that the main opposition party in the lower house of parliament, with a formidable strength of 84 members, would compel the government to let 'public representatives' consider but one-point agenda during the Monday sitting of the national assembly. Of course, the unbearable rate of inflation spreading and deepening gloom among millions of Pakistanis was projected as the intended agenda.

One anticipated a doubly 'stormy' sitting after knowing that Pakistan Stock Exchange had almost crashed Monday by hitting the lowest point after a long gap of 70 days. Reporting the panic selling, some commentators also claimed that investors were feeling insecure due to widely spread rumours, insisting that Prime Minister Imran Khan had actively begun contemplating the idea of 'sacking the team' he had borrowed from the IMF for extracting a 'bailout package' of six billion US dollars.

Although not elected to any house of parliament and having no history of association with Imran Khan and his Tehrik-e-Insaf, Dr. Hafiz Sheikh was appointed as an 'advisor' on Finance with absolute command and control of the ministry. Even the duly elected ministers can only dream enjoying such control over departments under them in our country.

Inducting Hafiz Sheikh, Imran Khan had also appeared as if heartlessly ditching Asad Umer. This corporate-wizard had joined the PTI many years ago. After elected to the national assembly for the first time from Islamabad in 2013, he had exclusively been focusing to lynch the economic and fiscal policies of the PML-N government. Doing this, he often projected a radically different strategy and work plan to turn our economy around and push it on the route to growth and prosperity. No wonder, immediately after taking over in August 2018, Imran Khan appointed him as the Finance Minister. He was also given a 'free hand' to execute his dream, which looked so doable on paper and through the speeches he had been delivering during the previous assembly.

In the larger interest of the country and its stability, the hardcore loyalists of Imran Khan...