Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar — who is under severe criticism over the worsening of the economic situation and dwindling forex reserves — said on Friday that he is going to conduct a press conference at 04:10pm.
While leaving the Parliament, a journalist asked the finance minister whether he was resigning from his post to which he responded with a smile saying: “Do you have any problem with my work?”
He was also asked what is the government’s strategy amid the current economic condition of the country to which he simply said: “I am going to conduct a press conference at 04:10pm.”
A journalist also asked whether there was any truth to claims made by former Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Shabbar Zaidi that he was resigning.
“What did Zaidi do to the country? Zaidi should have been behind bars over refunding of billions of rupees,” said the finance minister — who took charge in September last year.
On Thursday, the rupee slumped by nearly Rs19 against the US dollar ahead of the central bank’s off-cycle monetary policy review and concerns over a stalled deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The finance minister had assured that Pakistan would strike a staff-level agreement (SLA) with IMF next week as the negotiations were about to conclude, further adding that “the economy is headed in the right direction and blamed miscreants for spreading rumours about Pakistan’s possible default.”
