ISLAMABAD: Ruling party Senator Ishaq Dar took oath as a federal minister today, Wednesday, paving the way to becoming the finance minister of Pakistan five years after he was ousted from the role by a court in a corruption case.
President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to Dar at the Presidency at 10am.
Dar on Tuesday took oath as a senator, a day after he had landed in Pakistan from London where he has lived in self-imposed exile for five years.
Dar is a member of PM Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling PMLN party and has already been finance minister four times. 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 in the market.
“The arrival of Dar has changed the sentiments in the currency market and many people think that he would take punitive actions against the speculators,” Zafar Paracha, General Secretary of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP), told Arab News on Tuesday as the rupee recouped Rs5.74 or 2.3 percent during the last two consecutive trading sessions following the nomination of Dar, known to favor a strong currency, as finance minister.
Pakistan’s currency has lost its value by 6.48 percent during the current month and has depreciated by 24.54 percent since January this year as demand for imports exerted pressure on the rupee.
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 to charges he amassed wealth beyond known sources of income, said he was receiving medical treatment in London and unable to return to Pakistan.
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 say the cases against them are politically motivated.
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 by 2017 when 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.