Finance Minister Ishaq Dar''s influence in decision-making appears to have decreased after the Supreme Court judgment in the Panama case and he is no longer visible as he was before. Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for assets beyond means after he was unable to satisfy the court for an increase in wealth from Rs 9.1 million to over Rs 800 million.
Sources said that post verdict activities of Finance Minister are very limited unlike before when he was spearheading all major activities whether these were in the economic arena or the political arena. He was heading 35 or so committees - from electoral reforms to special committee on economic policy decisions during the premiership of Nawaz Sharif.
A notification issued by Cabinet Secretariat on August 10, 2017 removed Finance Minister from the chairmanship of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet and elevated it to the level of the new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
An official of Finance Ministry told Business Recorder that this in itself was not unusual as Cabinet Committees are reconstituted when a new prime minister takes charge, hence ECC was reconstituted.
In reply to a question as to why the Finance Minister was relieved of some of his responsibilities during the incumbent prime minister''s tenure he stated that perhaps the Finance Minister was no longer interested in continuing with manifold responsibilities.
He also dispelled the impression that the Finance Minister was not as active after the Panama papers verdict as he was before. In order to support his view point, the official stated that Finance Minister presented the electoral reform bill in both the houses of Parliament during the just concluded sessions and also attended an event relating to the tax directory in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
There is a growing perception however that the new Prime Minister lightened the Finance Minister''s responsibilities because most of the proposals of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources (when the portfolio was held by the incumbent prime minister) were shot down in the ECC when Dar was the chairman.