ISLAMABAD: On Monday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar accused PTI Chairman Imran Khan of damaging the economy and promised to lower the dollar to under 200 rupees.
He told Hamid Mir on Capital Talk on Geo News that the
Pakistani rupee's genuine worth is less than 200 to the US dollar and would be
devalued since it is now too high.
The dollar is strong globally, but Dar promised that
"we would lower it below 200 against our currency shortly." Dar has
the difficult challenge of restoring stability to an economy that has been in
freefall for months, facing numerous risks from soaring inflation, an expanding
current account deficit, and declining reserves.
He firmly supported intervening in the currency markets in
his three prior tenures. He is also anticipated to boost the rupee, which on
Monday finished at Rs227.29 versus the US dollar.
Dar claimed that Imran Khan's public comments revealed his
annoyance and added that favoritism and bargains were a part of Khan's fate. He
said Imran "cracked deals to create demonstrations and contest the elections."
He slammed the PTI leader for delaying the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC) project by keeping Islamabad captive for 126 days. Dar
warned Imran of dire consequences and urged him to respect himself and his
boundaries.
He repeated his notion that the nation needed an economic
charter and said that Imran and his entire team were "obsessed" with
him because they feared that we, the PMLN, would stabilize the economy once
more as we did in 2013.
In response to a query on PTI leader Hammad Azhar's allegations that Dar had manipulated economic statistics, he stated that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is an independent organization and does not engage in manipulative acts.
Dar stated of previous finance minister Miftah Ismail:
"From now on, neither Miftah nor anybody else needs to worry about
anything because I have to manage the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
concerns."
The government's decision not to raise the petroleum
development levy (PDL) this month without the consent of the IMF was described
by Miftah as "reckless" a day earlier. He told him not to worry about
the IMF because he now must deal with the organization, adding, "Miftah is
my colleague, but he has his point of view, and I have mine."
I have answers and have dealt with them for 25 years, so I
know how to handle them. "Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif personally
informed me that at the United National General Assembly (UNGA) session, when
Miftah was also present, he suggested to the IMF authorities to freeze taxes to
which they did not oppose," the finance minister stated.
He made fun of his fellow PML-N member for "burdening
the populace" with his ideas, saying, "I feel that the
flood-and-inflation-weary people shouldn't be burdened more." Inflation increased
as a result of the rupee's decline, according to Dar, who also stressed that
the agony that the population was now experiencing could not be ignored.
He said that the speculators profited greatly from the
strengthening dollar relative to the rupee. According to the finance minister,
the PMLN-led administration deserves credit for the IMF agreement.
Dar instructed Imran to remain silent since he knew how to
handle him. He claimed that Imran was created for wheeling and dealing and that
he did not want to wash the PTI leader's filthy laundry publicly.
The finance minister presided over a meeting at the finance
division to discuss the monetary aid provided to flood victims in the interim.
Dr. Ayesha Ghous Pasha, the state's minister of finance and
revenue, the governor of the SBP, the president of the HBL, the secretaries of
finance and BISP, and top officers were present.
Nearly 90% of recipients received monetary assistance, and
the remaining beneficiaries will get payments over the following five days,
according to information supplied to the meeting by the secretary of the BISP.
According to him, several reports of payment fraud at POS
and ATMs have been reported. The SBP governor and HBL president informed the
meeting that a sizable amount of aid money had been handed to the flood victims
and that actions were being taken to resolve their grievances.
Dar voiced worry about the payment irregularities and
reiterated that the government supported the flood victims in their hour of
need and would use all possible means to save and help them.
He gave the SBP and HBL instructions to address the
complaints of flood victims and take all necessary measures to ensure the
efficient distribution of financial aid. To ensure prompt distribution of aid
funds to flood victims, he instructed them to ensure cash availability at all
distribution stations and address any cyber-related problems.