ISLAMABAD: Pakistan prime ministerial aide Ishaq Dar on Tuesday took oath as a senator after returning to Pakistan a day earlier from London where he has lived in self-imposed exile for five years, bringing him one step closer to being sworn in as the new finance minister.

Dar is taking office, for the fourth time, with the challenge of getting the economy out of one of its worst balance of payment crises that has seen foreign reserves falling to a month of imports. He is a member of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling PMLN party.

Dubbed Daronomics, his approach kept the rupee stable between Rs98 and Rs105 against the greenback during his last stint in office from 2013-2017 but he was also widely criticized for deliberately undervaluing the rupee by pumping dollars into the market.

Miftah Ismail, who recently helped get approval for the seventh and eighth reviews of an IMF bailout program, allowing for a release of over $1.1 billion, stepped down to pave the way for Dar to take over.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my country in your administration which was an honor and a privilege,” Ismail said in a resignation letter dated September 27, and addressed to the PM.

While the media had reported the ex-finance would remain part of the government’s economic team, the outgoing official told Arab News on Monday: “I will have no role in the government.”

“I will try my best that I can pull Pakistan out of the economic swamp it is trapped in,” Dar told media on Monday night at the airport after returning to Pakistan from London where he has lived since 2017 when he was disqualified from office by a court in a corruption case.

A Pakistani anti-corruption court declared Dar an absconder after the veteran politician, who is a close aide to three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, failed to turn up for several court hearings in 2017. Dar, who has pleaded not guilty, said he was receiving medical treatment in London and is unable to return.

The charges against Dar followed an investigation into the finances of former PM Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in July 2017 after the Supreme Court disqualified him for not declaring a small salary from his son’s off-shore company.

Both Dar and Nawaz deny any wrongdoing.

During his stint as finance minister from 2013-2017, Dar was initially lauded for steering Pakistan out of a balance of payments crisis in 2013 and returning the nuclear-armed country toward a higher growth trajectory.

But in the year before he stepped down as finance minister after Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified him from office, Dar faced widespread criticism for his refusal to allow the rupee to weaken to ease macroeconomic pressures. He was also accused of eroding the central bank’s independence.