Dar’s policies proved disastrous for country: Asad

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Asad Umar, has said the country’s economy was put on the verge of collapse because of PMLN-era finance minister Ishaq Dar’s “wrong economic policies”.

Talking to reporters after chairing a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, the former finance minister clarified a statement he made about his predecessor’s policies “specifically with respect to overvalued exchange rate, which was wrongly reported by the media”. “In fact the former finance minister kept the exchange rate of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar artificially overvalued, which seriously dented the country’s economy,” Umar added. He said the media incorrectly quoted him as saying Dar had done the right job by keeping the exchange rate overvalued.

Answering a question about rumours of his leaving the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Umar expressed astonishment, saying he was “shocked” to hear that as there was “no truth to such rumours”.