The main highlight of the current Cabinet reshuffle has been the return of Shaukat Tarin to the Finance Ministry after 11 years. The man who replaced him back then, Dr Hafeez Sheikh, had been dropped now for reasons that will define Mr Tarin’s tenure: the failure to control inflation, and his lacking a seat in Parliament. One thing emerging from Mr Tarin’s induction is that the government must see its way to finding him a seat in the Senate. He needed that seat during his last tenure, so that he could chair the National Finance Commission to a successful Award.
He replaces Hammad Azhar, the freshman MNA, whose brief tenure was marred immediately by the issue of trade with India, which he had approved while chairing an ECC meeting, only to see it shot down the next day when it went to the full Cabinet. Mr Tarin brings to the office expertise, different from Dr Sheikh, who is essentially an academic, as he is a lifelong banker, and who is stepping down as the head of a bank he himself heads. Mr Tarin should handle the inflation plaguing the economy if, as expected, he does what he thinks is right, rather than what is convenient, as he has always done.
Mr Azhar may have been relieved of the Finance Ministry, but he will still have to deal with the IMF. Its deep interest in the ballooning circular debt means that, as Energy Minister, Mr Azhar will still have to explain not why the government’s policies have failed to control prices, but why circular debt has not been reigned in. His predecessor, Omer Ayub Khan, has gone to Economic Affairs, where he will face the task of conducting a census in October which, unlike the previous one, will be uncontroversial and not face the objections of the 2017 exercise.
One of the promises of Mr Khan was that he would produce through a good team. The crucial Finance Ministry has been patchy. The very first minister, Asad Umar, had to be removed, and the experience with Dr Sheikh was no better, even though Mr Khan had to take much intra-party flak for allowing in someone without stakes in Pakistan. Mr Tarin will hopefully mean a new beginning, even if he is an old hand. The swopping of the Science and Information portfolios is also seen as the comeback of an old hand, with Fawad Chaudhry returning to his old stamping ground.
