Dar likely to return to Pakistan next month

ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Ishaq Dar is expected to return to Pakistan after mid-July 2022 after the political leadership of PMLN granted him permission to move ahead on this front, it was learnt.

Sources close to Ishaq Dar confirmed to this scribe on Monday night that his return to Pakistan was on the cards after mid-July 2022. The former finance minister obtained a passport in early May 2022 after the government granted him permission to obtain it in April 2022.

Earlier, the PTI-led regime had cancelled his passport in 2018; it was placed under such a category under which the renewal of the passport was banned. Now Dar will have to consult his doctor for taking precautionary measures to get a flight for his return to Pakistan.

He will also have to remove a stumbling block on the legal front. Ishaq Dar has given instructions to his legal counsels to approach the higher courts so that the proclaimed offender (PO) proclamation against his name could be removed. The sources said that when all these issues will be resolved, he may return after mid July 2022.

Ishaq Dar is considered as the head of core economic team of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Nawaz). It is expected that he will be sworn in as Minister for Finance after taking oath as a senator.

Miftah Ismail, the current Minister for Finance, may be given the charge of any other ministry but the exact portfolio has not yet been decided.

It is not yet known how the IMF is going to respond to this possible change of guard at the highest level at the Ministry of Finance. Ishaq Dar possesses a vast experience to negotiate with donors. He steered the economy out of a crisis mode in the aftermath of nuclear explosions in May 1998 and then in 2013-17 when the country’s economy plunged into a deep crisis.