The prospect of Ishaq Dar’s return as finance minister in a PML-N government after the next elections will be a baffling choice. Even a delay in elections still leaves compelling questions over the choice of previously tested and visibly failed leaders to run the economy, which remains the most powerful challenge for Pakistan’s future.

Dar, who led the finance ministry under the last PML-N government, left behind a much-blemished legacy. His track record worth recalling ranged from crossing swords with the IMF whose help was necessary to avert a foreign debt crisis, to a failure to live up to his promise of overseeing a surge in the exchange rate of the rupee.

The subsequent improvement in that rate came about once the former finance minister stepped down and handed over the reins of the finance ministry to Shamshad Akhtar, an experienced economist with prior experience serving Pakistan’s central bank and international institutions.

But beyond the failure of the former finance figure whose claims to fame include his relationship with PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif [Dar’s son is married to Sharif’s daughter], the issue is a wider one. To date, Pakistan’s main political parties are either far from functional as in the case of the PTI, or don’t seemingly........

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