Give them a break

Within days of taking over as the Finance Adviser, Shaukat Tarin faced a Market that was in freefall, with the Pakistani Stocks having dropped 30 billion dollars. This was completely unrelated to the US markets, which had lost two trillion dollars in less than two weeks, and is still reeling even though emergency sessions of Congress and the Senate approved 700 billion in funds to shore up the economy. Our government does not have pockets deep enough to cover the 30 billion let alone 3 billion. While we are scrabbling around begging bowl in hand, Shaukat has prevailed upon the Lady Gov to reduce interest rates, and inject funds to increase liquidity and support the forex market.

These emergency measures may not be enough to halt the crisis but will serve to stem the blood flow. They have also elicited positive responses from senior members in the financial sector - persons who are notoriously shy in handing out praise and his statement "Lockers of the people and their foreign currency will never be taken from them - not even over my deadbody" has put the fears of many a Memon to rest.