Warning for the next PM

THE first thing that incoming prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has to realise is that no matter what happens, no matter how much pressure comes his way from his own party, including from Nawaz Sharif, he must not, under any circumstances, make Ishaq Dar finance minister again. Bringing Dar in as finance minister one more time will be the worst mistake Shehbaz Sharif can make at this point. The biggest disaster of his last stint as prime minister was precisely this. Dar undermined Miftah Ismail at a critical juncture, when the latter was trying to complete a stalled review of the IMF facility and avert a near imminent balance-of-payments disaster. Dar derailed that understanding with the IMF, which had been reached after so many painful adjustments. And what was it for? A fleeting moment when it seemed the dollar might fall to 200 to a rupee? Dar could not deliver that bizarre promise of his, despite angrily declaring again and again on air that he would do so, and giving one date after another by when this target would be achieved.