Pakistan's new finance minister Ishaq Dar, harsh criticism of PTI
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) politician Ishaq Dar has taken charge as Pakistan's new finance minister. He was sworn in as the Finance Minister in a brief ceremony at the Parliament in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday (September 28). President Arif Alvi administered the oath to him. The main opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) criticized the government for appointing Dar as finance minister.
According to Al Jazeera's report, 72-year-old Ishaq Dar took charge of the Finance Minister for the fourth time. An accountant by profession, Dar joined politics in the 1980s. After that he was elected Member of Parliament twice and Senator three times from Lahore.
After PML-N's victory in the 1997 elections, Dar became the Finance Minister for the first time. He was then made Finance Minister for the second time after the 2008 elections and for the third time in 2013. He served till November 2017.
Last Sunday (September 25), Miftah Ismail resigned from the post of Finance Minister. He took this decision amid economic crisis due to major floods in the country.
Last month, Pakistan was hit by the worst floods in history. However, the South Asian country is suffering from economic crisis even before the flood. It has become more extreme due to floods. The amount of damage caused by the flood reached about 2 billion dollars. The United Nations has also called for emergency assistance for the country.
Miftah Ismail announced his resignation during his visit to London with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The next day he returned home and submitted his resignation letter. Ismail is the fifth finance minister to resign in less than four years.
Miftah served as the finance minister for six months. His success during this period is that he was able to waive 117 million dollars as a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with the ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan.
After Miftah's resignation, Ishaq Dar was nominated as the Finance Minister. Last Monday (September 26) he returned home from London after five years of voluntary exile. Pakistan's anti-corruption agency National Accountability Bureau (NAB) found him guilty of corruption in 2017, just like former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
After taking oath as Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar said, 'I will try my best to pull the country out of the economic crisis. I am optimistic that we are moving in the right direction.'
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan criticized the ruling government for appointing Dar as finance minister. In a statement, he called Dar "Pakistan's most cunning" politician.
