When the Pakistani Rupee lost its value against US dollar during early stages of the current government, Mr Dar vowed to bring it down to RS 98 from RS 107. However, despite his very best efforts it came down and stabilised around RS 104. The opposition termed this decrease as artificial. While presenting his subsequent budgets, he has assured the nation that Pakistan’s economy was based on sound footing and the country was moving forward. Our foreign exchange reserves reached US $ 24 billion and Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) was giving one of the best performing in the world attracting foreign investors. Pakistan also got the emerging market status recently. However, a couple of days ago when Pakistan stock exchange suddenly fell along with the rupee taking a beating, our worthy finance minister termed it as artificial blaming opposition for hatching conspiracies to weaken Pakistan’s economy. The minister should have the courage to take the fall when he never stops taking credit for even the slightest positive thing in the economy. More worrisome is the fact that the common people believing in the word of minister about strength of our economy, invested their hard-earned money in stock exchange have been robbed of their belongings. In the end, ordinary people of Pakistan trying to take advantage of rise in PSE and inspired by the upbeat comments of finance minister suffered badly. It is better to keep people aware of the true picture of the economy than keeping them under illusion to be totally disillusioned when reality overtakes and stares in their eyes.
Raja Shafaatullah
ISLAMABAD