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Tag: Finance Minister

  • Petrol price reduced by Rs12.63 to Rs224.80 per litre

    Petrol price reduced by Rs12.63 to Rs224.80 per litre

    Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has announced a significant reduction in petrol prices on Friday, cutting the cost by Rs12.63 per litre to Rs224.80 per litre.

    A reduction of Rs12.13 has also been made to the cost of high-speed diesel, bringing the new price down to Rs235.30 per litre. After a reduction of Rs10.19 per litre, the cost of light diesel oil will be Rs191.83, according to Geo News.

    The new petrol price will go into effect after 12 AM.

    According to a statement from the Finance Division, the government decided to lower the price of petroleum goods in response to a drop in the price of these products on the global market and to help consumers who had been affected severely by inflation.

  • Court issues notice to NAB on Dar’s plea to cancel warrants

    Court issues notice to NAB on Dar’s plea to cancel warrants

    An accountability court has served a notice to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) today (Wednesday) after newly-appointed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar surrendered himself before the court and submitted a petition pleading for the cancellation of his arrest warrants.

    The court then issued a notice to the NAB and ordered Dar to appear before the court on October 7.

    “We will hear the application for cancellation of warrants along with assets’ reference,” the judge remarked.

    In 2017, Dar was a declared a proclaimed offender in a NAB reference due to his continued absence from the proceedings.

    NAB accused Dar of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

    The case was filed by NAB in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.

    The same year, Dar flew to United Kingdom due to seek medical treatment. He stayed there for almost five years until his return to Pakistan on Monday.

  • Miftah Ismail responds to a follower, reveals which restaurant he will visit when back in Karachi

    Miftah Ismail responds to a follower, reveals which restaurant he will visit when back in Karachi

    After resigning from the post of Finance Minister, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, Miftah Ismail, can’t wait to get back to dine at his favourite restaurants in Karachi.

    Miftah took to Twitter on Sunday and announced his resignation.

    Where many commended and congratulated Miftah for his dedicated work as finance minister, a follower questioned him about which restaurant he would like to visit once back in Karachi.

    Miftah replied, “I am going to visit Zahid, Idris & Javed Nihari houses, Al-Kebab, Ghaffar and Meerut Kebab, & Gola at Dhoraji. Many choices fortunately.”

    Karachi is Miftah Ismail’s hometown.

    It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N leader and Senator, Ishaq Dar, is coming back home to Pakistan after almost five years. It is being reported that Dar will take over the finance ministry from Tuesday (September 27).

  • Dar aaraha hai: Ishaq Dar flying back with PM Shehbaz

    Dar aaraha hai: Ishaq Dar flying back with PM Shehbaz

    Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Senator, Ishaq Dar, is coming back home to Pakistan after almost five years.

    According to media reports, he is flying back with Prime Minister Shehbaz Shairf. Following his return, Dar — who is slated to become Pakistan’s new finance minister — will take the oath of his ministership on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.

    On Sunday, Miftah Ismail resigned as Finance Minister of Pakistan.

    “I worked to the best of my ability for four months, and remained loyal to the party and the country,” the PML-N statement quoted Miftah as saying during the meeting between Nawaz Sharif and other party leaders in London.

    Earlier, it was reported that Dar would take over the finance ministry from Tuesday (September 27).

    It is pertinent to mention that Ismail is an unelected member and thus couldn’t continue in office for more than six months. He took charge of the ministry in April.

    The Sharif brothers and Dar had a four-hour long meeting in London following the prime minister’s arrival from New York after attending the United Nation’s 77th General Assembly.

    While speaking to Geo News Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Dar, who has been Pakistan’s finance minister four times in the past, will “Facilitate PM Shehbaz on economic affairs.”

  • Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Ishaq Dar to take charge of finance ministry on Tuesday

    Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Ishaq Dar to take charge of finance ministry on Tuesday

    Former Finance Minister and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar is ready to take charge of the finance ministry on September 27 (Tuesday), reports Geo News.

    Currently, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif is in London, where he held a meeting with Nawaz Sharif and Nawaz’s close aide Dar, where the decision took place.

    The incumbent Finance Minister Miftah Ismail will continue to work with the government after leaving his post as Finance Minister.

    It is pertinent to mention that Ismail is an unelected member and thus cannot continue in office for more than six months. He took charge of the ministry in April.

    Earlier, Dar, himself said that he would take oath as a Senator immediately after his return

    Dar is set to come back to Pakistan next week. The PML-N leader has been living in London since 2017 to receive medical treatment. He served as a federal minister of finance four times between 1998 and 2017.

    The former finance minister was elected as a PML-N senator on a technocrat seat in the Senate election on March 3, 2018. He is considered to be quite close to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

    Rana Sanaullah hints at Ishaq Dar becoming finance minister again

    Prior to this, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah hinted a Dar becoming finance minister once again, saying that the senator “can assume the finance ministry”.

    Talking about the possibility on Geo News‘ programme Naya Pakistan, Rana said, “There is no problem for him to become a finance minister. However, the PML-N has not made any decision so far in this regard.”

    According to Sanaullah, the government will definitely consult Ishaq on economic matters as he is experienced and a senior leader.

    When asked about Miftah Ismail, the minister said that he doesn’t have a problem. “He is ready to work with the party with or without ministry”, he stressed

    Is Ishaq Dar coming back to Pakistan?

    An accountability court on Friday, September 23, suspended the arrest warrant against Dar and dismissed orders for arrest upon his arrival in Pakistan.

    Accountability court judge Mohammad Bashir issued the orders, stating that once Dar returns to Pakistan, the court will decide whether it should revoke his arrest orders permanently or not.

    “We will consider permanently suspending Dar’s arrest warrants once he appears before the court in person,” the judge added.

    In 2017, an accountability court, while hearing a corruption reference against Dar, declared him a proclaimed offender due to his continued absence from the proceedings.

    However, Dar had not taken oath as a senator since 2017. The accountability court had declared Dar an absconder in a corruption reference.

  • ‘WhatsApp calls are being tapped’: Shaukat Tarin

    ‘WhatsApp calls are being tapped’: Shaukat Tarin

    Former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that he wants to tell Pakistanis that now their WhatsApp calls are also being tapped.

    “It was a WhatsApp call. I am disappointed that a WhatsApp call was being recorded. We can take up this matter legally,” said Tarin while speaking on a political talk show on Express News.

    His remarks were in relevance to his recent audio leaks where he asked Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra to write letters withdrawing from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) deal.

    Read more: ‘Yeh ab tai hogaya hai Imran Khan Pakistan aur 22 crore logo se zyada eham hain’: Twitter reacts to leaked audio

    Tarin was questioned that primarily a WhatsApp call cannot be recorded, so is there a possibility that the people he was conversing with leaked the call.

    Read more: Leaked audio: PTI’s Shaukat Tarin allegedly advising finance ministers in Punjab, KP to sabotage IMF deal

    “There is an institution [behind this]. The conversation cannot be leaked from either Leghari, Taimur or myself. So Pakistanis should know that now WhatsApp calls are being tapped,” said Tarin.

  • Jhagra responds after Miftah accuses KP govt of jeopardising IMF deal

    Jhagra responds after Miftah accuses KP govt of jeopardising IMF deal

    After Finance Minister Miftah Ismail accused the KP government of plotting to derail the IMF deal in a late-night press conference, KP Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra stated that the province is currently dealing with a flood scenario that takes precedence over everything else.

    In a previous letter to Miftah, Jhagra connected the payment of the Rs100 billion in alleged liabilities with the clearance of the provincial cash surplus for this fiscal year, which is a requirement of Pakistan’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    This occurs just three days prior to the revival of IMF’s multibillion dollar credit programme. The K-P government has already agreed through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to achieve the Rs117 billion cash surplus that is required by the IMF arrangement. Ismail is a co-signatory of the Letter of Intent (LoI) that was recently sent to the IMF in order to revive the programme.

    “Please note that in these conditions [floods], and without the resolution of the issues highlighted previously, for the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to actually leave a surplus will be next to impossible,” Jhagra wrote in the communique sent to Miftah on Friday.

    Miftah Ismail’s call, according to Jhagra, was “interesting,” and the two will now meet on Monday to resolve their issues. However, the provincial finance minister stated it was “sad” that in Pakistan, one needed to “shout to be heard.”

    Jhagra confirmed in a series of tweets that he had actually addressed a letter to the federal finance minister and not the IMF. The provincial minister sent a letter that included images as well.

    Jhagra went on to say that despite raising the same issues with Miftah at their meeting on July 5, they decided to return the IMF MoU to Islamabad within 24 hours with the approval of the chief minister of KP.

    Jhagra added that the KP administration would never back down from advocating for a strong federation or from bringing up its concerns at the centre.

    At a late-night press conference, Miftah called the letter “deplorable.” He labelled the letter as a “conspiracy to derail the IMF programme and sink the rupee.”

    He questioned whether PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who was seeking to obliterate Pakistan and its economy out of a desire for power, had any set parameters.

  • Miftah Ismail commended for his ‘bold and clear’ comments on violence against religious minorities

    Miftah Ismail commended for his ‘bold and clear’ comments on violence against religious minorities

    Speaking on Geo News’ programme “Naya Pakistan”, Finance Minister (FM) Miftah Ismail on Sunday said that most Pakistanis are driven by emotions and not rationality.

    “How many people spoke up for a Christian couple burnt alive in an industrial kiln? A few days ago, an Ahmadi was killed but not many people raised their voices. People are scared.”

    Read more: Ahmadi man allegedly murdered for not chanting slogans in praise of Khadim Rizvi

    A 62-year-old member of the Ahmadi community named Naseer Ahmad was stabbed to death in Chenab Nagar on August 12, for allegedly refusing to chant slogans in praise of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) founder Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

    https://twitter.com/SAMRIReports/status/1559108747502538753?s=20&t=1PbwDx-IqmjAnhPaRqTy-A

    Miftah went on to say that we don’t value education and that we are an emotionally driven country. “We are an emotional country that does not give much precedence to rationality and thinking.”

    “We don’t own Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam, because he was an Ahmadi. Our daughter, Malala [Yousafzai] won a Nobel Prize and we find all kinds of faults in the world and associate them with her,” said Miftah.

    The minister also said that our country lacks the basic awareness required for a country to progress because we don’t give preference to education.

    Twitterati reacted to Miftah’s comments about minority rights.

  • Another friendly country to confirm assurance this week: Miftah Ismail

    Another friendly country to confirm assurance this week: Miftah Ismail

    According to Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, “one friendly country” has confirmed its commitment to assist Pakistan in filling the funding gap, while another nation would confirm its assurance in a day or two.

    An announcement will be made soon on this subject after confirmation.

    Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Pakistan has completed the final prior action for the combined seventh and eighth reviews with the increase in the petroleum development levy (PDL).

    The IMF also stated that the board meeting is tentatively scheduled for late August once adequate financing assurances are confirmed.

    In order to prevent Pakistan from having a liquidity vacuum following the IMF loan, the international lender wants to make sure Pakistan will be able to get $4 billion in additional cash.

    The country has a $4 billion finance imbalance, according to Miftah, and the IMF wants our reserves to grow by $6 billion.

    Pakistan is in touch with friendly nations to cover the gap, and one of them has already reaffirmed its assurance. Within a day or two, the other nation will confirm as well.

    The assurances would be announced in advance of the IMF board meeting, which is slated to take place in the last week of August. According to reports, the IMF would announce the disbursement for Pakistan as soon as sufficient finance assurances are verified.

    The import bill has decreased to $4.92 billion, according to the minister. Due to this, there is now more cash coming in than going out. The market attitude has improved as a result of this.

    He believed that the Pakistani rupee had grown significantly versus the US dollar and would continue to do so.

    The Pakistani rupee made a significant recovery on Wednesday, recording its largest day-over-day gain in absolute terms against the US dollar to settle at Rs228.8, up Rs9.58 or 4.19 per cent in the inter-bank market. In the early hours of Thursday, trade, the rupee kept rising.

    On Thursday, stocks extended their gains, with analysts blaming the strong recovery of the rupee and soaring global equities for the optimistic trend.

    Read more: Dollar may drop near Rs180 after IMF tranche

    The benchmark KSE-100 index increased 356.50 points or 0.87 per cent to settle at 41,425.37 points, according to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

    After being battered for weeks due to political and economic unrest, the local currency recovered by Rs9.59 on Wednesday, marking the highest one-day rise in decades.

  • Pressure on Pakistani rupee may decrease in August

    Pressure on Pakistani rupee may decrease in August

    Finance Minister Miftah Ismail expressed his continued faith in Pakistani rupee’s (PKR) ability to withstand pressure despite the PKR continuing to hit historic lows versus the US dollar and suffering its biggest weekly slide in more than 20 years.

    The finance minister stated in an interview with Radio Pakistan that the political climate and the fact that import payments are being made for shipments beginning in June are both contributing factors to the pressure on the PKR.

    “Import of $80 billion were made during the last fiscal year. We are still making payments for energy commodities purchased last month. Therefore, the rupee is under pressure. However, as we are importing less in July, its effect would be reflected from next month or, I should say, next week.”

    “The rupee’s fall is connected to the political situation as well. Before July 17, the situation wasn’t like this,” he added.

    Miftah also spoke about Pakistan’s economic issues, stating that the poor export base continues to be a matter of concern.

    The local currency has continued to depreciate against the US dollar, losing 7.6 per cent last week, more than what businesses typically account for in terms of annual currency depreciation, as the inter-bank market experienced a turbulent five sessions due to renewed political uncertainty and increased worries about Pakistan’s external financing needs.

    He also revealed that one friendly country is ready for an instant investment in Pakistan.

    It is worth noting that Pakistan anticipates receiving the next International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche before the end of the following month following the board meeting.