While the country’s top economic managers remained busy on Friday convincing State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Shahid Kardar to withdraw his resignation, the Presidency said it has not received his resignation as yet. The economic managers believe that Kardar’s resignation at this juncture – an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is arriving in Islamabad to discuss the release of the next tranche of $1.6 billion – would unravel the entire economic team. “The formal resignation has not yet reached the Presidency,” president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Pakistan Today.
Cajoling: But a source said Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haque were busy convincing Kardar to delay his resignation until the talks with the IMF concluded. However, Kardar reportedly did not agree, and after ascertaining that the efforts were futile, the finance minister and Haque held a consultative meeting to discuss the names for a new SBP governor. Another source said Kardar’s decision might trigger other economic managers to also follow suit, as they would face similar problems that their colleague faced. “If his resignation is accepted, who will be the next to quit? This is a question that everyone asks,” the source said. The IMF stressed during talks with the government in May that they wanted the same officials to brief them on financial performance in July, as frequent changes in the negotiating team caused misunderstanding because new team members had different takes on previously made commitments, the source said. In bureaucratic circles, the three top functionaries were considered a closely-knit team. If the remaining two do not find a replacement in time, they would also be under pressure to call it a day, the source said.
The appointment of upright Kardar last year as the SBP governor was quite surprising for many, considering the government’s record of appointments. The source said the government functionaries were in favour of appointing SBP Deputy Governor Yasin Anwar as the governor, as he would have been more “accommodating”. But Kardar was candid in castigating the government for its borrowing from the central and commercial banks. He was of the opinion that the government should meet its requirements by generating more revenue. The hard hitting speeches of the SBP governor against the lack of financial discipline in the government and the quarterly reports of the central bank were attributed as bones of contention between Kardar and the government, which wanted the central bank to lower the discount rate.
Presidency hasn’t received Kardar’s resignation
