The Finance Minister of Pakistan said that Allah is responsible for the development of the country. (File)
Islamabad, Pakistan:
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday said Pakistan is the only country founded in the name of Islam and Allah is responsible for its development and prosperity, as the cash-strapped nation faces face a serious balance of payments crisis.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Green Line Express train service here, the senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that he is fully confident that Pakistan will progress because it is supported by the country. created in the name of Islam.
“If Allah can create Pakistan then He can also protect, develop and make it prosperous,” Mr. Dar said.
“They are trying their best to improve the situation of Pakistan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,” the finance minister said.
Mr Dar reiterated that the incumbent government has inherited some problems from the previous government led by Imran Khan, adding that the government is working day and night.
“The group is trying to improve the situation before the election.” He said the country was still suffering from the “play” that began five years ago and emphasized that the economy was strong during former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s tenure from 2013-2017.
The finance minister stated that the Pakistan Stock Exchange is the best performing capital market in South Asia and the fifth in the world in the era of Nawaz Sharif and the world institutions that have targeted it.
Mr. Dar said that Pakistan is now paying the price for the “Panama drama”, the overthrow of the PML-N government and similar problems it has faced over the past five years. “Pakistan has been on the upswing during Nawaz’s tenure, but it has veered off course,” he said.
He added: “People can see the devastation the country has suffered over the past five years and they know who has caused the consequences in the past.
Faced with a severe balance of payments crisis, Pakistan is desperate to secure much-needed external financing, with its foreign exchange reserves less than three weeks’ worth of foreign exchange reserves, which have dwindled. $923 million to $3.68 billion.
Pakistan received a $6 billion bailout from the IMF in 2019. This has been added to a further $1.1 billion in 2022 to help the country recover from the aftermath of unprecedented flooding. But the IMF suspended disbursements in November as Pakistan failed to make more progress in consolidating its finances amid political turmoil in the country.
Meanwhile, the Washington-based global lender on Thursday announced that it will send a staff delegation to Islamabad this month to discuss the resumption of the bailout program.
Despite repeated claims by the finance minister, Miftah Ismail’s replacement, to bring the dollar rate below Rs 200, the greenback rose to a record high of Rs 268.30 in the inter-market bank.
The Pakistani rupee extended its downtrend on Friday with the local currency falling more than Rs 12 against the US dollar in the interbank market as the government eased currency controls to convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pending loan release. .
The local unit traded at Rs 268.30 against Thursday’s close of Rs 255.43 on the interbank market.
A day earlier, the rupee fell 24.11 on the interbank market, to as low as Rs 255.43 against the dollar. The 9.6% drop was the second-biggest drop in a session.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
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