Daily Times

Visiting Paris Club for funds would be my last resort: Ishaq Dar

Ishaq Dar, the federal minister of finance and revenue, stated on Friday that approaching the bilateral Paris Club creditors for debt relief would be his last resort because rating agencies downgrade the ratings of nations that approach the Paris Club.

“We plan on doing business and investors hesitate when countries seek relief from bilateral Paris Club creditors,” Dar said during the interview.

Earlier, Dar’s predecessor Miftah Ismail said the country was neither seeking nor there was any need for any relief from commercial banks or Eurobond creditors. “Given the climate-induced disaster in Pakistan, we are seeking debt relief from bilateral Paris Club creditors,” Miftah had said.

Commenting on Moody’s decision to downgrade the Government of Pakistan’s local and foreign currency issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to Caa1 from B3, Dar said that the rating agency adopted a professionally discriminatory stance towards Pakistan.

“Our team spoke to the officials of the rating agency and even I spoke to them personally,” he said, adding that he told them that they should have been patient for a few days.

He lamented that Moody’s has portrayed an image that shows that, God forbid, Pakistan will default.

Regarding his scheduled meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff scheduled later this month, Dar said that efforts will be made to fulfill the conditions agreed upon by his predecessors.

“I have solutions to present in front of the fund members in order to convince them of my decision regarding the petroleum prices,” he said.

Last week, the government slashed the price of gasoline by Rs12.63 per liter, providing huge relief to the nation’s people who were suffering from inflation and raising questions about the ongoing IMF programme.

The finance minister clarified the rupee-dollar parity by saying that he was optimistic that the rupee value will decline below the 200-point threshold against the US dollar within the coming days.