Flight of dollar & increase in inflation are the effects of Imran Khan’s agreement with IMF & then its violation: Miftah Ismail

ISLAMABAD, May 13 (SABAH): Finance Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail Ahmed has said that the flight of dollar and increase in inflation are the effects of Imran Khan’s agreement with IMF and then its violation.

In a statement, Finance Minister Muftah Ismail said that dollar’s value will come down and the stock exchange will go up again once they get rid of the swamp of the agreements undertaken by Imran Khan. He added that bringing back the way Imran Khan had left the economy was not an easy task; however, he expressed hope that they would bring that back with Allah’s will. “Subsidy on petrol has put severe financial strain on Pakistan’s economy”, he noted. Finance Minister emphasized that the difference between the purchase price of petrol in the world market and the selling price in Pakistan is costing the government billions of rupees. He added that the loss was estimated at about Rs 120 billion the ongoing month, three times the cost of running a civilian government.

Finance Minister Muftah Ismail said that no government could bear such a huge deficit that is why there was turmoil in all the markets and inflation is spreading. “If the government does not have money and it still gives subsidy then it has to borrow more and due to this, with the increase in interest rates, the pressure on the rupee is increasing”, he clarified. The minister noted that Imran Khan took the biggest loan in history; he borrowed 80% of the total debt of Pakistan in 71 years.

Miftah Ismail added that Imran Khan had borrowed Rs 20,000 billion in three and a half years due to this debt, the government of Pakistan suffered severe economic hardship. “Imran Khan has left 10.4 billion in foreign exchange reserves and these foreign exchange reserves are only equivalent to 45 days of imports and that the situation of foreign exchange reserves is dangerous which ought to be at least double”, the minister noted. The minister added that Imran Khan violated the written agreement with the IMF which they had to restore and that Imran Khan created problems in Pakistan’s relations with all countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, which they had overcome now. Miftah Ismail sought explanation from the former premier as why he increased the value of dollar from 115 to 189. He stated that when they came to power the dollar was at 179 and that after the arrival of Shahbaz Sharif, the dollar came down.

He said that the stock exchange had confidence in Shahbaz Sharif, hence it showed an increment of 1700 points. He added that during Nawaz Sharif’s rule the growth rate was 5.8 percent and inflation at a low of 3.4 percent and that Inflation skyrocketed due to four years of looting, incompetence, cartels and mafia rule. The minister added that Imran Khan would have to answer for his crimes against the country and the nation. Miftah Ismail expressed hope that with Almighty Allah’s help they would get out of the quagmire and the stock exchange would go up again.