ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has expressed the hope that the demand for US dollar would decrease in the next few days following reduced imports, and the situation in terms of the exchange rate would reverse.
Addressing a press conference along with Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif on Thursday, the finance minister said that a permanent governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would be nominated next week and the board names would be released on Thursday.
The minister said that the country being in the international convention (WTO) cannot think of imposing any cap on the dollar, adding that all the currencies have been depreciated against it. He maintained that some three days ago, Pakistan’s currency appreciated against euro, yen, and sterling pound, and it has been doing right in the basket of currencies.
The finance minister added that what happened during the last three days was primarily because of political turmoil as import numbers of the ongoing month gave him confidence of a decline in the demand of the dollar against supply and consequently, the situation of the exchange rate would reverse.
Ismail said that there is adequate stock of diesel (two months) in Pakistan and the country would not import it at least for now, whereas, motor oil and furnace oil imports have also decreased and more importantly, pressure on the dollar has already started showing a decline subsequent to the ruling parties’ decision that the government would complete its tenure.
Speculation, uncertainty causing rupee freefall: Miftah
Defence Minister Asif however, maintained that inflation and dearness played almost no role in the by-election of Punjab and claimed that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has consolidated its position both in terms of seats and votes.
However, he said that the ruling party would learn from July 17 by-polls before coming hard on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman for compromising on his political position for political interests in the province. He said that the same person, Chaudhary Pervez Elahi, which in the past was being dubbed by him as the biggest daku (dacoit) of the province is being nominated as the chief minister of the province.
He also questioned how PTI could accuse the government of being involved in the buying the members and stated that no one had pointed finger on transparency of the by-election on 20 seats. We have maintained the sanctity of the votes, he claimed.
He also stated that the federal cabinet has decided to appoint the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman.
The defence minister said that there was depreciation in Pakistan’s currency during the last six months against the dollar and this was not just Pakistan-specific as currencies of other countries have also devalued against the dollar.
The minister said that the situation would have been much worse if the country had defaulted and the present government had compromised its political capital for the sake of the country.
The defence minister said that collective efforts are required to deal with losses of sick units (SOEs) and increase tax collection. He said that some Gulf countries have shown some interest in government entities, and changes in the law are being brought to pave the way for working mechanism on G2G basis which would be done and unveiled in a day or two.
He acknowledged that the middle man was affected by the difficult decisions of the government and underlined the need to reduce the size of the government as the country cannot afford such a huge size of the government.
Pakistan is the only country where markets are open till midnight, he said and stated that this pattern is required to be changed and executive allowance and luxurious lifestyle should not be enjoyed on public expense.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022