Default threat still not over: Miftah Ismail

KARACHI: Former finance minister Miftah Ismail believes the path on which Pakistan is heading might take the country towards default as he called on the government to take steps to avert the looming threat.

“Pakistan should not default. However, I definitely believe that the path we are on might take us towards default as the economic challenges have increased. We should take steps to avoid the danger [of default],” Miftah said while speaking during Geo News’ programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath”. The former minister said the threat of default will keep looming over Pakistan until the government completes the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Ninth Review. “Pakistan is in jeopardy; it has gone back in jeopardy and as long as IMF is not back on the table, the threat of default will remain high,” Miftah, who held the post of finance minister for over five months, said. The former finance czar refused to accept PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s narrative of early elections and said that the previous (Imran-led) government had pushed the country towards default.

Calling Imran ‘the father of default’, Miftah said Khan is responsible for pushing Pakistan towards default; he is the one who broke his promise with the IMF; Khan is the one who wanted to derail the IMF programme when we tried to revive it under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s leadership.