Ishaq Dar stresses the need for political parties to sign a Charter of Economy to steer the country out of economic challenges

ISLAMABAD, June 19 (SABAH): Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar has stressed the need for political parties to sign a Charter of Economy to steer the country out of economic challenges. He pointed out that the quagmire this time is bigger than the one witnessed back in 1998-99. The Finance Minister said the decline in the economy has been stopped, but now we have to take the economy towards a positive trajectory.

Ishaq Dar, in his budget 2023 speech on the floor of the National Assembly, addressed the concerns raised by Dr. Nafisa Shah on the floor of the Assembly. Firstly, he addressed her concerns regarding the rehabilitation, reconstruction and relief efforts in Sindh as the floods caused hundreds of thousands of residents to vacate their homes and destroyed a large portion of Infrastructure. He stated that rupees 80 billion have been distributed to the distressed families through BISP and NDMA has also already distributed essential relief items, worth rupees 12 billion, among the families.

Secondly, he stated that as per the reports of UNDP and Ministry of Planning the total economic loss is worth $30.3 billion and the total infrastructure loss is $16.3 billion. He stated that in the Prime Minister’s Donors Conference, attended by United Nations Secretary General and our Federal Foreign Minister, cash donations collected were less than $400 Million while 50% of funds were in the shape of loans. However, the reconstruction of infrastructure will take 3-4 years and a meeting will be conducted later in the day to finalize the strategy and to initiate the implementation process.

Ishaq Dar assured that the infrastructure construction will be done on (4FT) Internationally recognized standards for disaster prone areas and out of $16 billion received for rehabilitation and reconstruction, $11 billion will be spent on the reconstruction of infrastructure and rehabilitation of Sindh.

He concluded his speech by endorsing Dr. Nafisa Shah’s suggestion for drafting a Charter of Economy and stated that deliberations were done in 2013-14-15-16 for drafting it, as in 2002 a Charter of Democracy was drafted but due to some military interventions and Constitutional amendments a few of its propositions couldn’t be adopted.

Nevertheless, a Charter of Economy in the next Fiscal Year should be drafted and it is safe to say that the economy of this country will improve from now onwards.