“So The Man Who Must Remain Nameless dictated a letter to I assume his lawyers to on-send it to the International Monetary Fund Managing Director - a letter that the Fund, when asked by an international news agency, says it has not yet received.”

“Oh, so what do you expect?”

“Well, there is a conflict.”

“Indeed, I agree the letter should not have been sent…”

“No, no that’s not what I meant. Two things first when I referred to conflict I wasn’t referring to any conflict of interest but to the fact that for a party that continues to overwhelm the social media in this country - a capability that the party acquired six to seven if not more years ago and used very effectively in the recent polls (the other two national parties have yet to achieve even 30 percent of what the party led by The Man Who Must Remain Nameless has achieved) anyway why did they opt to send a letter, and not an email, not X not……”

“Can email and X communication be used in a court of law?”

“Don’t think the IMF should worry about that – The Man Who Must remain Nameless, and his party leaders are embroiled in enough cases…”

“Ah OK, so the letter will arrive in what? Seven days or what?”

“I don’t know anyway the second point I wanted to make was that multilaterals, including the IMF, negotiate only with the sitting administration not the last one irrespective of whether the previous administration was deposed unconstitutionally.”

“Well there is nothing in the Fund’s Articles of Agreement that stipulate that lending is linked to subversion of the constitution though I imagine that the final review under the ongoing Stand By Arrangement will highlight the issue of political instability, more so if protests against the controversial elections spread, as the risk would rise…”

“But wouldn’t the rise in risk keep the country’s rating low, which has so far accounted for the failure to generate 6.1 billion dollars budgeted for the year from borrowing from foreign commercial banks and issuing sukuk/Eurobonds.”

“But you know that the ratings for the country have not been upgraded since 2022 when a Shehbaz Sharif led government was in place.”

“Yes, so The Letter may be a Scarlet Letter, why are you amused?”

“Well the book The Scarlet Letter is set in the US state of Massachusetts way back in the mid-1600s where a woman has a child out of wedlock and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity but as punishment she has to wear the letter A – as in adultery which is why when you refer to a scarlet letter today it is known to mean…”

“Shush, we are a literal sort of people, a scarlet letter means red paper depicting blood and gore…”

“Dear me.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

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