Tick tock, Mr Prime Minister

Messrs Dar, Wathra and Waqar are outwardly satisfied at locking up $500 million in Eurobonds to pay off debt acquired during Shaukat Aziz’s time. This is not a bad deal at a time of nervousness in global money markets.
But it appears that opposition parties were just waiting for this launch to materialise before vehemently criticising the Nawaz Sharif team for further indebting the country’s coming generations. Their objection is primarily targeted at the high interest rate of 8.25 percent attached to the bonds.
Our economists, who constitute one of the most devalued categories in society, have found reasons to puncture holes in Darnomics – but that is nothing new. I endorse the official thinking that the economy is too important to be left to the economists. Just like diplomacy cannot be left to the diplomats and war – err – to the generals, why should the economy be left to the experts of economic theory?
Meanwhile, the annual diplomatic conclave took off in New York but hardly any one lost breath over what may emerge from the line-up of leaders from various continents. The United Nations is no longer the visionary organisation it was meant to be to safeguard international peace and security. The seeds of its slow decline were sown at inception by granting veto powers to the victors of WWII.
Any one of them could block a major decision in the Security Council. That is how the US prevented the People’s Republic of China from taking up its seat in the UN maintaining the farce of Taiwan representing the territory and the people over which it had no control. Veto power is an ‘original sin’ that cannot be atoned.
Even today, the claim of the vanquished of the war – Japan and Germany – as well as that of India and Brazil to become permanent members of the UNSC is held up because a majority of the members is uncomfortable with another group to be in a position to control decision-making in

the world body.
Henry Kissinger referred to the US State Department as a place where the urgent takes precedence over the important. The global urgency this week was linked to speaking at the UN General Assembly session in New York. While our prime minister managed to deliver the mother of all his speeches, his Indian counterpart simply ducked the opportunity, leaving it to Sushma Swaraj to have another go at Pakistan.
If Modi was hoping for a rich harvest elsewhere in the US to boost India’s investment friendly credentials, he might be disappointed. There is nothing as shy as a million dollars. While corporate America is still keen on India, Modi’s personal behaviour has sent shockwaves. His gesture of shoving the Google CEO – who was blocking Modi’s view of the cameramen – to the side, was plastered over Indian television sets for hours. Nawaz, on the other hand showed good grace by waving at Modi from the other end of the dining table at one of the banquets.
Those who criticised Nawaz for travelling incessantly can also take pause because Modi has beaten all previous Indian records, if any, of globetrotting at public expense. The other Sharif too is touring extensively in Europe to burnish his ‘civil’ credentials. Thereafter, let us hope the ISPR goes easy on carpet bombing the media about the chief’s routine activities. This privilege should be left to the leaders of the people.
I am resisting the temptation to comment on the PM’s address to the UN General Assembly in order to see the impact it makes in and around Pakistan. For now let us concentrate on the peripheral. Nawaz stopped in London on his way to and back from New York for well-known reasons. He has thus spared the Foreign Office from arranging a different stop-over on the way back. This is a departure from the previous practice of stopping at different stations on the two journeys that would have provided the prime minister the opportunity to meet another European or Middle Eastern leader on the way back.
Domestically, the prime minister’s back-to-back meetings in New York – especially his address at the UN – have helped embellish his image as a leader. This image is often spoiled by his media mangers by putting out cryptic communiqués about the prime minister having taken notice of ‘A’ and given instructions to ‘X’. The PML-N is old enough to realise that leadership is not proved by doing As and Xs but through showing results. If there are results, the people are not dumb to deny praise to the ruling brothers.
Welcome home, Mr Prime Minister. Let us see if the September coolness of New York and London has rejuvenated you enough to shed away your reluctance to take decisions and make key appointments. Time will not find its own solutions.
Someone should remind Mian Sahib that the clock is ticking and he is already almost half way through his unprecedented third term. Will those around him take the hint and show for a change that the PM is not merely elected to take notice of A and directing X to do routine things? He has to win each day of his term by making one important decision or making a much delayed appointment.
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