Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar on Monday arrived in Islamabad from London to assume the responsibilities as federal minister for finance in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet. According to the decision made earlier by the senior PML-N leadership, Ishaq Dar would take over the responsibilities of the Finance Ministry from his predecessor Miftah Ismail who had already tendered his resignation before the prime minister. Talking to the PTV News, Dar said that the first priority for him was to get the country out of the “economic vortex” situation. The former minister landed at the Nur Khan airbase in Chaklala, Rawalpindi. He accompanied Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on his trip back to the country from London.

Talking to reporters after landing, Dar said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and the premier had tasked him to take over the portfolio of the finance minsiter. “I will try my best to fulfill all the responsibilities. We will try to take out the country from the economic swap it is stuck in […] the way we did in 1998-1999 and 2013-2014.” Dar further expressed hope that “we will now head in a positive direction”.

Earlier while leaving from London, Dar hoped to pick up where he had left Pakistan’s financial hot seat five years ago, aiming to work on improving the value of the rupee against the dollar apart from addressing several other macroeconomic crises facing the country. Dar said that the problems with Pakistan’s economy are quite apparent. He added that the office he had left to come to London for medical treatment, he would be returning to the same office.

Dar hoped to restore the country’s economic position, which he had helped take Pakistan to during 2013-2017, when the interest rate was the lowest, and the growth rate was the highest in decades, while other macroeconomic indicators were also positive with a stable rupee and high reserves. “We will try to arrest the economy’s downward trend and change its direction by the grace of God,” he said. He reiterated that there was a politically motivated tax on not filing returns while he had never delayed filing his income tax returns.