Photo courtesy PMLN
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Ishaq Dar returned to Pakistan after five years, having already been tapped to replace Miftah Ismail as finance minister.
Accompanying Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif—who was returning to Pakistan after official visits to the U.K. for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and the U.S. for the 77th session of the U.N. General Assembly—Dar is expected to take oath as both the new finance minister and a senator.
“I have returned to my country by the grace of God,” Dar told media in a brief statement after landing in Islamabad. “I will try my best to pull Pakistan out of the [economic] maelstrom it is surrounded with,” he said, adding that PMLN chief Nawaz Sharif and the prime minister had both trusted him with the responsibility of overseeing the finance ministry.
“[We] pulled Pakistan out of an economic mess in 1998 and 2013,” he said, referring to his previous terms as finance minister, adding he would do so once again. “We will now head in a positive direction,” he added.
Dar’s return had been speculated on for several months amidst public criticism over the policies of Ismail from several PMLN leaders. The intensity of the rumors increased the past month after Ismail told the audience at an event that while the government still had almost a year left to deliver, he had “far less time.” From his perch in London, Dar, too, had been criticizing Ismail’s policies, claiming he would manage things differently.
The finance minister-in-waiting’s path to his return was cleared last week after an accountability court suspended an outstanding arrest warrant against him till Oct. 7, directing him to appear before it for proceedings to continue. This was followed by Ismail announcing, over the weekend his resignation as finance minister and the PMLN issuing a statement confirming that Dar would be appointed as his replacement.
Dar takes charge of the Finance Ministry as the country reels from devastation caused by floods, estimated to have caused losses of up to $30 billion, and faces record-breaking inflation due to conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund. His return has already resulted in some optimism, with the Pakistani rupee reversing its persistent decline against the U.S. dollar, though financial experts have warned that this could easily shift once more if he is unable to deliver quickly.