Senate committee suggests Dar to step down

ISLAMABAD: Increasing the mounting pressure on Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for resigning from his post after issuance of arrest warrants against him by an accountability court, Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on Thursday asked the minister to relinquish his charge as a federal minister till the decision of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference against him.

According to details, during a meeting of the committee, held with Chairman Senator Saleem Mandviwalla in the chair here on Thursday, the members of the committee suggested that Dar, whose house was raided on corruption charges on Wednesday by a team of (NAB), should leave the office in the name of preserving country’s image.

Expressing his views on the burning issue, which was not the only source of concern for Pakistan’s economy but also for other foreign countries investing in the country, Senator Mandviwalla said that issuance of arrest warrant for a sitting finance minister was making news headlines worldwide and damaging the country’s image.

Calling Ishaq Dar a clever man, Senator Ilyas Balour of Awami National Party (ANP) said that the finance minister would definitely decide about his position. “Let him decide about relinquishing the post,” he said, adding that the only respectable option before the finance minister was to resign.

The senator also said that Miftah Ismail was going to replace Dar.

The committee chairman said that as a friend, the members of the committee should advise the finance minister to resign instead of bringing a bad name to the country. He also added that Chinese were asking about the development as they were interested to know what would happen if the finance minister faces warrants.

Senator Fateh Mohammad Hassani said that Dar should leave the job in a respectful manner as it was not suitable for him to keep holding the position despite corruption charges.

Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Shahid Mehmood requested the committee to hold its recommendations till he spoke with Dar and informed him about the discussion of the committee regarding his resignation. However, the committee later recommended that the finance minister should resign in the country’s interest.

According to reports, while discussing another agenda of the meeting, finance secretary and other officials of the ministry categorically denied taking Rs64 billion as a receipt; instead, the amount was booked as expenditure and consequently contributed to increasing the budget deficit. Furthermore, on the request of the finance ministry, the meeting decided to hold an in camera meeting about a briefing on commercial borrowings from China and their interest rates.

The meeting was also told that $1.5 billion received from the Saudi Arabia were parked in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) which was subsequently converted into local currency and Rs64 billion was transferred to a government-owned company established in 2014 for investment in infrastructure. The meeting was further informed that an amount was also injected as equity in two companies of the power sector.

Furthermore, the committee also deferred consideration of amendments to the Protection of Economic Reforms Act 1992, after SBP expressed concern that these would have negative impacts on the foreign currency deposited in commercial banks.