Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Ishaq Dar reiterated on Friday that Pakistan has never defaulted and would not now. He responsibly ruled out the possibility of a financial emergency in the country and claimed that the country has enough financial resources to meet its needs.
Although the economy is in a precarious condition, “we will successfully sail through it,” he said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad to “clear ambiguity” around the economy.
Dar said that the government had made a principled decision whether to save the state or its own politics around the time of the previous year’s vote of no confidence against former prime minister Imran Khan.
He said that the state’s interest was prioritized over political interests at the time and that it was the “right decision.”
Ishaq Dar criticizes Imran Khan
He criticized the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, urging him to reflect on his own past and performance.
He said that the PTI leaders were talking time and again about the risk of default, but their statements were not based on reality.
The finance minister said that Imran Khan’s attitude was selfish, always putting his self-interests before the national interest.
He said that instead of coming together to find ways of steering Pakistan out of the current crisis, Imran was only concerned about how he could criticize the government.
He said that such attitudes had a negative impact on the financial markets and the image of the country.
Dar further said that bad governance and mismanagement of the PTI government were the reasons for Pakistan’s current scenario.
He also attributed the financial losses arising from last year’s devastating floods as being majorly responsible for the economic issues, adding that it incurred over 30 billion dollars in loss on Pakistan.
