Miftah Ismail is the worst Finance Minister of Pakistan: PTI
Jul 22, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 22 : Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has accused Miftah Ismail of being the worst Finance Minister of Pakistan ever as the country continues to register a downward trend in the value of its rupee.
PTI leader Muzammil Aslam accused the Finance Minister of increasing chaos every time he appears on the TV screen and added that his statements work as fuel to the economic fire, ARY News reported.
'Miftah Ismail is Pakistan's worst Finance Minister,' Aslam said.
He added that earlier the finance minister had said friendly countries would give Pakistan USD 8 billion. However, now Ismail has said that deals are not done overnight, it would take time.
Aslam claimed that the incumbent government destroyed the trust of the market. He said the government is celebrating the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as if everything would be fine now, local media reported.
The PTI leader mentioned that Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was first sent to get the IMF loan, and now Pakistani diplomat Tariq Fatemi has been sent to get the loan, but the incumbent government has not yet succeeded.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 16 said that Pakistan will receive USD 1.7 billion tranches in the coming three to six weeks, after reaching the staff-level agreement earlier this week.
An extension of the EFF until the end of June 2023 and an augmentation of access by SDR 720 million bringing the total access to about USD 7 billion will be considered by the IMF board in order to support programme implementation and meet the higher financing needs in FY23, as well as catalyze additional financing.
The Pakistani rupee surpassed all prior records against the US dollar after hitting a fresh record low of PKR 228 against the dollar in the interbank market on Friday.
Analysts have said that the political uncertainty in the country due to the bypolls in Punjab and the delay in the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) programme has contributed to the slump of the Pakistani rupee.
Arif Habib Limited analyst Ahsan Mehnti is hopeful that the currency will recover soon as the IMF deal with the country will give it a "much-needed breather".
Since the beginning of this fiscal year (July 1, 2021) to date, the rupee has collectively dropped over 30.65 per cent (or PKR 48.29) compared to the previous fiscal year's close at PKR 157.54.
The rupee has maintained a downward trend for the last 13 months. It has lost over 33.20 per cent (or PKR 50.56) to date, compared to the record high of PKR 152.27 recorded in May 2021, reported Geo News.
