Dar touts ‘charter of economy’ idea, challenges Moody’s

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Friday said that a “charter of economy” must be signed in order to overcome the current economic crises in the country.

Talking to reporters after appearing before the accountability court, Dar also urged political parties not to play politics on the economy. “Political parties should promise that they will not do politics on the economy,” he said.

To a question regarding Moody’s Investor Service, he said that do not worry as nothing will happen as he talked to Moody’s Thursday and explained the facts to them. I have told them to reverse it, if the agency did not reverse the downgrade of Pakistan’s sovereign credit rating, I would give a “befitting” reply in a meeting with its officials next week, he said.

Regarding the country’s economy, he said that the rupee value is strengthening and the value of the dollar depreciated in the country. Now, the country’s economy will further improve by taking different measures, he said, adding no one will be allowed to control the rupee’s value artificially.

He said that the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) devalued Pakistan’s currency artificially. The value of the US dollar would come down below Rs200, he said, adding that with the improvement of the value of the rupee our foreign debt has decreased by Rs2,600 billion within a few days.

About the case against him, he said that it is fake and baseless. The actual case was regarding his tax returns from 1981 to 2001. He said he had never delayed filing tax returns in his life, adding, the case of not filing tax returns against me is baseless and just aimed at taking political revenge.

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He said that he never opposed accountability. He said if anyone commits any wrong including him then he shall be punished for it but he is against political victimisation.

Earlier, he appeared before the Accountability Court-I judge, Muhammad Bashir, in an assets beyond means case against him and others. The court cancelled Dar’s arrest warrants in the assets beyond means case filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and directed him to submit surety bonds of Rs1 million.

At the start of the hearing, Dar’s counsel Qazi Misbah requested the court to permanently cancel his client’s arrest warrant and the order to confiscate his assets.

He told the court that the court had issued the arrest warrants but now his client has appeared before it.

The judge asked the NAB official has the NAB also issued arrest warrants for Ishaq Dar. He replied that the NAB had issued Dar’s arrest warrants but the warrants have been suspended.

The judge further asked what is your stance now with respect to the warrants, should the warrant be cancelled or not? The NAB prosecutor supported the cancellation of warrants, saying that warrants were issued to ensure Dar’s appearance before the court.

The judge said that Dar will be indicted again as a supplementary reference has also been filed against him by the NAB. Dar’s lawyer told the court that he will argue before the court over the matter of whether the filing of supplementary reference was necessary or not.

The court also issued notice to the NAB over the application filed by Dar against the confiscation of his property and permanent exemption from attendance.

The court has asked the NAB to present its arguments at the next hearing to be held on October 12.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022