ISLAMABAD, June 20 (INP): Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar rejected the allegations that the devaluation of the dollar was controlled artificially by the PML (N) government.

In an interview to Asian Times, he said there is no concept of maintaining an economy artificially in economics. You probably can do it for a week or 10 days but not more than that.

Ishaq Dar said the PTI has devalued the Pakistani currency by 48% and the exports saw no growth because these masses were thrown into price hikes. Due to devaluation, the debts of the country have swollen to $30 billion.

The PTI government, he added, has failed miserably in presenting a balanced budget because it was not prepared for it. Devaluing money and imposing taxes on the already financially weak masses will not improve anything.

Dar said, the PTI was not prepared for governing the country and they actually had no knowledge of how economies work. In 2013, when we took charge of the country, he as a finance minister did not waste time in accusing the previous government of giving us a weak economy. Instead, we were ready to take on the economic challenges. When we came to power the stock exchange was at 19,000 index points and when we left the index points stood at 54,000.

This did not happen by itself. We amended the old corporate law and merged the different cities’ stock markets into the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

We worked on the betterment of economic indicators and as a result, investors showed confidence and it ultimately resulted in the growth of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, he added.

To a question, he said he never let the IMF dictate to them. I was always against the devaluation of our currency. During negotiations with the IMF, the officials from the IMF tried to convince me to devalue the currency. The moment they asked me to devalue the currency I stood up and said, “I can’t do it, thank you very much for your time,” and I left the room. In the end, I was able to convince IMF officials that there was no use in devaluing the money.

The IMF officials put pressure on you, but if you cannot resist that pressure for the sake of your country, then you are certainly not the right person to do the job of governing the country, he added.

INP/J/AJ