It is worth remembering that when the PPP government got power in 2008, it was due largely to the trauma caused by martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. Our forex reserves at that time were about sixteen billion dollars. They plummeted after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his other PML-N cabinet colleagues resigned enbloc. Then onwards, PPP kept hiring one non-professional manager of economy after the other and in six months, around ten billion dollars had gone down the tubes. Many IPPs closed down or were functionally obstructed and electricity management was a complete mess. With the non-professional, incompetent ministers at helm in every important ministry, the economy tanked and loadshedding of ten to twelve hours became our fate alongside a permanent crisis of this thing called the 'circular debt. This circular debt, which runs in hundreds of millions of dollars, we are told by Dr Salman Shah often enough, had been reduced to zero before he left. Thankfully, the forex reserves have gone up again, hovering right now at some fourteen billion dollars although some seventy percent or more of it (between $10 billions to $11 billions) comprises the IMF or other multilateral loans. I have the eerie feeling that this stability may be temporary and this dollar cache may be drained very quickly if a Finance Minister worthy of the challenge we have is not found quickly enough. I am hearing about some Mr Naseem having a connection with you knowPresident Asif Zardari. Now, nowI am really saying nothing, except that an honest economist has to be found who could monitor our dimes and pennies. -Z. I. REHMATULLAH, Dubai, March 17.