ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister of the coalition government and PML(N) leader Miftah Ismail said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar should be replaced with a competent person to manage the economic affairs in an efficient manner.
Miftah stated this today in the wake of Dar’s failure to convince the IMF to sign an agreement for the resumption of the stalled loan.
The PML-N leader said that there are competent cabinet members like Ahsan Iqbal. He added that he would not talk about Ishaq Dar’s capabilities but his strategy in dealing with the IMF proved counter-productive.
Miftah Ismail said, “The economic situation would not have deteriorated to such an extent we are seeing today had the government secured the IMF deal in October 2022.
Miftah said that Dar’s philosophy to talk to the global lender “eye to eye” had negative implications. He said that the approach resulted in the country’s foreign reserves plummeting to $2.9 billion with the government still having to increase the petrol price by Rs35.
People’s factories were shut down owing to Dar’s egoistic policies, said Miftah.
“What benefit did the country get from selling cheap petrol, punishing the exporters, and increasing the default risk?” asked the PML-N leader.
More to follow……
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
