WASHINGTON, April 12: The new government does not want to indulge in a “blame game” with the previous rulers, says Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, adding that he plans to continue some economic policies of the outgoing government as well.

Talking to Pakistani journalists outside the US State Department, where he met senior US officials, Mr Dar said he does not want to repeat “on American soil” what he said about the previous government in Pakistan.

Before leaving for Washington, the finance minister told the media that the previous government had fudged figures to present a rosy picture while its policies pushed the country into an economic crisis. He also said that today the economy was in a far worse shape than it was in 1999.

But after his meeting with US entrepreneurs and senior officials, he told reporters: “The new government will continue the FDI-linked policies of the previous government.”

Mr Dar claimed that the Sharif government had introduced these policies before it was ousted in 1999 and therefore “there will be continuity in these policies … there will also be a consistency in policies of deregulation and privatisation.”

When reminded that before leaving Islamabad, he had accused the previous government of messing up the economy, the finance minister said: “It is not a blame game.” Asked to compare the economy as it exists now with what it was in 1999, Mr Dar said: “We are not doing comparisons.”

The previous government, he said, should have made fiscal and monetary adjustments where those were necessary to meet both domestically and globally pressure “but due to political expediency in the election year, they did not.”