COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Technocrat to advise Pak PM on finance

Pakistan's depressed economy is unlikely to be boosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's decision to put a technocrat in charge of the country's finances, analysts said.

Sharif shifted Sartaj Aziz from finance to foreign affairs on Friday, and named Hafiz Pasha, a respected economic scholar, as his special financial adviser. Pasha will have the duties of finance minister, but could not be named to the cabinet because he is not a member of Parliament.

Qaiser Bengali, an economist at Islamabad's Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said Pakistan's economy needed a major overhaul.

''It's not the job of a technocrat. They lack vision. It is a politician's job,'' Bengali said.

Pasha was quoted as telling the Wall Street Journal that he would broadly follow the policies of Aziz. Asked whether Pakistan would accept what are likely to be tough new loan terms from the International Monetary Fund, Pasha said, ''We will do whatever is necessary to revive the economy,'' and stressed the importance of the country's negotiations with the IMF later this month.

The government, hard-pressed by anti-nuclear sanctions imposed by the United States, Japan and other industrial nations, could seek a moratorium on the payment of its $ 30 billion foreign debt.

Analysts say the foremost concern for the country's economic managers remains that crushing debt and lack of foreign exchange.

UNI