ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the Senate on Friday raised questions over the abrupt devaluation of the rupee against the dollar and its implications for the country’s economy, insisting that the finance minister himself should explain if it had been done to meet IMF conditionalities.

The issue was raised in the house by PPP parliamentary leader Sherry Rehman through a calling-attention notice posing five key questions pertaining to devaluation of the rupee and Pakistan’s economy.

Also read: In the line of economic fire

Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar tried to give the reply, but Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Raja Zafarul Haq observed that the finance minister should himself give an explanation as there was a contradiction between statements of the prime minister and the finance minister on the issue.

Members walk out of house in protest against finance minister’s absence

Leader of the House Shibli Faraz, however, asked acting Chairman Saleem Mandviwala to allow the state minister to respond and asked how many times the PML-N’s finance minister turned up in the house to answer questions. He said the PTI government had inherited a ruined economy and thus it was busy in firefighting.

The house was told that Finance Minister Asad Umar was currently in Doha.

After the chair allowed Hammad Azhar to speak, he held the previous PML-N government responsible for the economic mess, saying foreign exchange reserves had been depleted to artificially maintain the rupee value and pointed out that the trade gap had reached $36 billion.

“Who is responsible for it? We surely have not done this in 100 days,” he remarked.

The state minister was on his feet when the combined opposition walked out of the house in protest against what it called inadequate answer to its questions in the absence of the finance minister.

Quorum bells were set off as quorum was pointed out following the walkout. As the quorum bells were being rung, the chair decided to put off the calling-attention notice to Monday, asking the leader of the house to let the finance minister give a response. The house was adjourned to meet again on Monday at 2pm.

Earlier speaking in the house, Ms Rehman said it was rather troubling that the finance minister was readily available for media appearances and he had answered more questions in talk shows and press conferences than he ever had in parliament.

The PPP senator then asked who’s calling the shots in Pakistan’s economy.

“If the prime minister did not know about such a huge devaluation and yet the finance minister did, then who is in charge and who will take the responsibility?” she wondered.

“If the precipitous devaluation was not part of any IMF precondition to bring the rupee down to non-artificial rate, then why was it done in such a disastrous freefall way in two crashes? Either way why was the managed float not graduated down slowly?”

She asked if the current account deficit would be fixed by this adjustment via a more robust export sector as to why all the exporters were saying that the crash was too steep.

Ms Rehman was of the view that while the gains for the export would be little, the impact on imports would be as high as Rs300 billion. She also reiterated the importance of transparency.

“When a country’s currency crashes so fast in one or two days, then there has to be an inquiry into who traded on the inside and made a fortune, while others lost their businesses and savings. The FIA should share its findings with parliament as to which money changer or syndicate profited from the devaluation,” she said.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018