(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. Learn to take a joke; you’ll live longer.)
ISLAMABAD – Investment scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani said on Tuesday that purchasing dollars to hoard for the sake of profit after the exchange rate had already crossed 150 is a ‘grave sin’ and disloyalty to the very basics of investment economics.
Talking to The Dependent, Mufti Usmani said that those involved in the act of hoarding after the American currency had already made immense gains are economically cursed.
“Purchasing dollars to hoard and earn profit by the increase in its price is a grave investment sin henceforth,” Mufti Usmani said.
“If you had done when the dollar was around 105, well done! If you managed to do it in time till it reached 125, congratulations, between 125 and 140, still good. After 140 it’s okay, and after 150 it’s a sin!” he added.
In the four business days leading up to Mufti Usmani’s statement, the dollar had risen by Rs9.60 against the Pakistani rupee to a new all-time high in the interbank and open market – Rs151 in the former, and Rs153 in the latter.
“The rupee has been falling since December 2017, have you been sleeping since then?” Mufti Usmani asked.
“Even if you were, the deal with IMF literally announced that the exchange rate will be market determined, at a time when it was still around 141. What were you doing then?” he further inquired.
