Dagha to take charge as finance secretary

E-Paper | June 06, 2026

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday appointed Mohammad Younus Dagha as federal secretary finance, a crucial post that falls vacant on Thursday following the retirement of incumbent Arif Ahmed Khan.

Mr Dagha is expected to assume the new assignment on Mar 22, according to a notification issued by the Establishment Division. The position is considered a hot seat in view of rising fiscal deficit amid struggling revenue collection and increasing expenditures — particularly interest payments and defence spending.

Soon after taking over, Mr Dagha is likely to find himself in the thick of upcoming negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package and navigate Pakistan out of the Financial Action Task Force grey list.

Prior to Wednesday’s notification, Mr Dagha was appointed as secretary commerce.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2019

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A. Mangal

Mar 21, 2019 11:05am

Please do provide what qualifications this man has while covering such news of important placement as federal secretary of finance. Lessons must be learned from Ishaq Dar’s qualification of being CA running country’s monetary & fiscal policies who mistakenly counted liabilities into assets thus boating falsely federal capital reserve in the treasury during PML-N rule. In Pakistan there are lots of inept cronies of the politicians who hold key federal government positions lacking basic qualifications and experience. Again, sadly Ishaq Dar was one of them!

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Ex-Citibanker UAE

Mar 21, 2019 01:20pm

@A. Mangal, : Fully supporting your comments, we have bad experience, Isaq Dar, Bajwa Govt of SBP and Shoukat Aziz as PM of Pakistan, all these three has damaged Pakistani economy, we have Mr Dagha qualification, work experience and his achievement.

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Haroon Rashid

Mar 21, 2019 01:36pm

In view of the global accounting standards Honorable Secretary Finance will comply with the multilateral agencies confidence, with previous governments fiasco on energy situation which brought Pakistan today. May I suggest to please have a look of promotion not subsidise the Renewable Energy role in the energy sector. Worldwide this source of energy as Solar is highly subsidised. As stated by honorable Advisor to stop all subsidies in view of the economic situation. But you have no other choices, than to consider Solar on priority in the power generation as major contributor in Pakistan. Blessings, regards

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amin

Mar 21, 2019 03:37pm

Honesty and integrity is a hard to find skill i would look in him.

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MYR

Mar 23, 2019 06:12am

@A. Mangal, its totally wrong assumption about ishaq Dar that he mistakenly counted liabilities as assets, Any professional CA cannot do this by mistake as he is the real expert In this domain except doing it deliberately for some objectives.

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