Umamah Bakharia | ub@radioislam.co.za

5min read
29 September 2022 | 10:30 am CAT

Ishaq Dar took oath as Pakistan’s new finance minister a day after he was sworn in as a member of the country’s parliament.

On Wednesday, President Arif Ali administered the politician’s oath of office during a brief ceremony in Islamabad’s capital. This will be the fourth time Dar, aged 72, has been given the portfolio.

After taking the oath, Dar outlined his priorities, saying, “We will control inflation. We will bring interest rates down.”

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Director, Center for Strategic Perspective (CSP) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, Dr Neelum Nigar says Dar has had mixed reactions from the country on the currency value.

“Some were of the view that [Dar] is good for the economy while many economists and policymakers were criticising him [by saying] that he is keeping the Pakistani rupee artificially overvalued,” says Nigar.

Pakistan has acquired a $1.17bn bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the country battles an economic crisis.

“We heard from the former finance minister that there is some indication from the IMF that they are going to soften the conditions, in terms of the levy on petrol and in terms of rescheduling or adding up some of the overall package,” she says.

This comes as Pakistan faces the aftermath of catastrophic floods that took the lives of more than 1500 people and left millions homeless.

However, the opposition has attacked the government over Dar’s appointment with the former prime minister and head of the main opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Imran Khan, calling Dar the “biggest conman of Pakistan”.

Listen to the full interview here: