Asad Umar - Answers

Time to answer questions raised on demise of Asad Umar couple of days ago. Answers will follow in two streams; circumstantial reasons which might be beyond his control & his personal failings for which he has only himself to blame. 

So the question: 

'Was Asad Umar a victim of circumstances or were there some personal failings?' 

And the answer:

'Well, a bit of both.' 

Firstly, circumstances were definitely not favorable. 

1.Economic hitman wanted us to cross three figures of debt(in billion dollars) to orchestrate our bankruptcy. Zardar-Nawaz were perfect stooges but Imran & Asad were not playing on their terms. They ran from pillar to post, begging & borrowing from friends to avoid getting IMF loans. But we are too deep into this quagmire & in the end, the inevitable had to happen. So international establishment didn't develop much fondness of our FM & his wit specially Chritine Laghard. 

2.Locally, FM-PM wanted longer-term re-structure & re-form but minority of deep pockets with established businesses who thrived in past, didn't approve long term reforms where ease of doing business may allow start ups to claim their share in business pie as well. Status quo was their best option. Hence, lobbying began. 

3.Political opponents began to sing to the tunes of international establishment & local business grand pas. Narrative seemed to gain momentum like a snowball. Clips of Asad Umar's speech after speech criticizing previous governments on price hikes especially dollar, petroleum & resultant inflation popped up on every screen we looked at. We all know, this government tried to keep dollar price real for real reasons. But the narrative being built was way too strong. 

4.Then, PTI termite (political garbage of other parties) also joined hands with opposition's narrative. These opportunists are the Achilles Heel of PTI, this waste of politics whose masks have changed but their grody ways can never change, boosted the narrative inside PTI. It is very easy to corner a relatively apolitical person in polorized environments specially when that some is in  less influential Shah Mahmood group than mighty effective JKT group.

5.Media was also ruthless in this situation for obvious reasons. They were not getting enough money from government & the only way they could vent their frustration was through hurting government and economy became underbelly of this government & FM was the ultimate affectee. 

6. A team of technocrats was offered to Asad Umar as a middle option but he didn't accept. Hence, all above factors built up from economic hitman to opposition to PTI snitches to disgruntled media resulted in Hafeez Shiekh assuming control of treasury business. 

Now, were there any fallabilities in Asad Umar. Most certainly, yes. 

Asad Umar may have solid social background, sound education & wide range exposure but power politics was never his forte. His love for country may have propelled him into the politics but unlike his unprecedented success in corporate sector, in politics, people skills are more important than brilliance of mind. There is a difference between running a company as top executive & running state treasury as  team leader of finances yet remaining a useful team of PM's cabinet. He might be a good leader of managers at Engro but he was not a great team member of a strong leader. Because if we don't agree on any virtue of Imran Khan we can't disagree on his strength & tenacity as a leader. Besides, Asad Umar was not in good communications with the Prime Minister because reshuffling news was passed on to him on whatsapp shortly after an interview with Kamran Khan at Duniya News in which he was upbeat on future of economy & in turn his own future as Finance Minister. Now communications gap between Captain & his poster boy opener only reflects poor on the opener as captain might have his hands full for the most part. Asad Umar was too concerned about his rapport with media than his rapport & performance with his own team leader.  In a nutshell, being intelligent, free spirited, candidly logical was not enough, he had to raise his level of existence from commensurate with his portfolio. People skills are only about image building but one has to be a good team player by understanding the mindset of leadership through extensive communications with the leadership. Lastly, false ego is a smart killer. If his leadership had asked him to switch roles, he should have given it a shot instead of asking permission to go on media to save his image & then talking to close friends & leaking info to media on contemplating resignation. Ego driven strategy of intelligent people has always led them to oblivion and Asad Umar wouldn't be an exception to this rule.

In one line, circumstances & capacity both caused early exodus of Asad Umar.

Final word on PM's decision making. We might have to give him time. His selection of cabinet, recent reshuffle, any other mid-course correction and leadership can only be judged by the end of term achievements or failings. Just this one decision of relieving and shuffling his cabinet does not excite too much judgement.  

Only Allah knows the whole Truth.