THIS is with reference to the report “ECC’s indecisiveness leaves wheat growers in limbo” (April 6), which talked about uncertainty within the Economic Coordi- nation Committee (ECC) along with insinuations on the finance minister’s alleged tardiness, inexperience, etc. It masks a much graver issue.

Though I do not know the incumbent minister, many of my students have worked with him on responsible positions and speak highly about his integrity and competence. Having served my time as an expert adviser to the chief minister of Punjab, who is now the prime minister, I am somewhat familiar with the cesspool that the minister will have to deal with.

Unlike the relative freedom in his career to direct his energies, he will be dragged in all sorts of directions at the real or imagined urgency and importance of his political bosses. Incompetent and ill-motivated bureaucrats will add to this huge mess. Soon, the minister’s bounded rationality will cross the dangerous line into unbounded territory, and his mind and body will start to go crazy.

To get anywhere in his current position, he must somehow find a critical few among the bureaucrats who are willing and able to handle what is the surely most vital ministry at the moment. He must get the prime minister’s approval to interview a 100 bureaucrats if he has to, and find the handful who can be his trusted team on the basis of competence and motivation.

He must then clearly decide what deserves his attention and time. There are other factors he will have to deal with, but a serious examination of those can take the shape of a doctoral thesis.

Prof Wasif M. Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2024