• Insists incumbent govt ‘can’t just show its presence and go’
• Sees ‘real value’ of dollar at Rs244

ISLAMABAD: Amid a public debate on whether the caretaker government can only address the day-to-day affairs, former finance czar Ishaq Dar came to the government’s rescue on Friday by backing its authority to make significant economic policy decisions.

In its last days, the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government had made some amendments to the Elections Act 2017, Mr Dar told reporters in an interaction at Parliament House.

He noted that Section 230 of the act enabled the caretaker government to make decisions on bilateral, multilateral and government-to-government agreements and privatisation, PPP (public-private partnership) and other transactions “because no country can afford the caretaker set-up of six to seven months just to show its presence and go”.

Responding to a question, he claimed that the PDM government — which served for 16 months after PTI chief Imran Khan was removed as prime minister in April 2022 — had fulfilled all international commitments during its tenure.

The PML-N leader said he did not foresee any hurdle in the second review of the $3 billion standby arrangement signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in June, under which Pakistan would get another tranche of $700 million.

Responding to another query, the former minister rejected the impression that inflation was about 37 to 38 per cent in the country these days, insisting that it was below 22pc — with 18pc in rural and 19pc in urban areas.

He said the PDM government had brought down the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation from 38pc to 28pc when it completed its tenure.

‘Rupee to rise further’

On a strengthening rupee against the US dollar, Mr Dar said banks and exchange companies were going in the right direction and he believed that the trend would not reverse.

“This is all speculation. Even if the theory of the Real Effective Exchange Rate (Reer) is not considered, the country’s economy cannot be held hostage at the hands of speculators,” he added.

Insisting that the dollar’s real value was around Rs244, he hoped the US currency rate would go down further and become stable at around Rs250.

He said that under the 2013-18 PML-N government, Pakistan’s economy was considered the 24th largest economy in the world and the country was close to becoming a member of the leading rich and developing nations of the G20.

“We had brought our economy from 47 to number 24 in the world and there is a report of PricewaterhouseCoopers [one of the Big Four accounting firms] available on the internet saying that Pakistan would become a member of G20 states in 2030,” he added.

Mr Dar said that despite conspiracies against the PML-N government — in the name of ‘Dawn Leaks’, Panama Leaks and dharnas (sit-ins) — the country’s economy was stable.

“You are a nuclear and missile power… There should not be any politics (on the economy) and everyone should strive for that one day when Pakistan will be among the G20 states,” he said.

He said that when the PML-N government came to power in 2013, Pakistan was faced with macroeconomic challenges and there was a prediction that the country would default in six to seven months.

“We turned around the situation in three and a half years by bringing the country to the stage where there was lowest inflation, food inflation was 2pc, general inflation was 4pc, the GDP growth rate was 6pc, the country’s forex reserves touched $24bn and the stock exchange became the best-performing market in South Asia and the fifth best in the world, when it had jumped to 54,000 points from 19,000 points,” he added.

To a question, Mr Dar said his legal team would soon apply for his protective bail in a white-collar crime case.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023