Ishaq Dar, the federal minister for finance and revenue, criticised Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for propagating “false news” about Pakistan’s impending default amid ongoing criticism over the nation’s economic unrest on Friday. He disputed all allegations that Pakistan should declare a financial emergency.
Dar, who took office as finance minister in September of last year, accused the previous PTI administration of putting the 220 million-person country on the verge of bankruptcy. He claimed the coalition administration saved the nation by putting the needs of the nation’s 220 million citizens ahead of personal political interests.
Dar claimed he held the news conference to address “ambiguity” in the current circumstances when speaking at a press conference on the country’s current economic crisis in Islamabad.
“As of last night, all of our formalities with the ICBC are finished. We gave them back $1.3 billion in the last few months, and now they are returning it and renewing this facility”, Dar emphasized, who also said that it was conceivable for $500 million to be paid by either Monday or Tuesday, followed by another $500 million in the following ten days.
The coalition government’s leaders resolved to put aside all partisan objectives in the larger interest of the state when the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a multi-party alliance, removed Khan through a no-confidence motion, the finance minister remembered.
Dar said angrily, “My press conference today will be a wakeup call for Imran Khan,” as the PTI leaders have been criticising him ever since the rupee fell to a record low of 285.09 a day earlier and February’s inflation rate reached nearly a 50-year high of 31.5%.
The deposed prime minister had already used Twitter to criticise the PDM-led administration for bringing back his “regime change conspiracy narrative pushed on Pakistanis by former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa” and for destroying the rupee.
“Rupee slaughtered — lost over 62% or 110/$ in 11 months of PDM. This has increased public debt alone Rs 14.3 [trillion and] historic 75 [year] high inflation 31.5%,” Khan tweeted.
