Comments on: Ishaq Dar Reveals Financial Mess

By: Makhdumi

Makhdumi — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:21:34 +0000

I am sorry Dar sahib. I am afraid, your economists are a bit too much politically instigated.

fake figures is the only matter of concern, otherwise, nothing out of the world was noticed. And I wonder….what does he mean by fake figures? can any body tell me if I could get hold of the document, dar sahab was quoting, somewhere online?

By: FalconDigitaLL

FalconDigitaLL — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:45:18 +0000

@@@ALL
We acknowledge that it really annoys keep observing the practice of blaming ones predecessors and the tradition is so twisted that even now when some one tries to reveal the situation with total sincerity then it is probed with wrong intentions………

Any ways Mr Daar is a very reputed finance guru( renowned as the pioneer of self innovative Dar-nomics philosophy) and able enough to stable the economy of the country provided he widens his consultancy circles including the independent economists like Dr. Shahid Hassan Siddiqi.

By: Asif

Asif — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:16:27 +0000

Dar sahib, I agree with you whatever you said about the previous regime. But what I don’t want or expect from you is that next finance minister saying the same thing about you.

Now lets come to the point, if we can survive with such a hidden surplus then I don’t think so it would be difficult for you to set aside 25% of the budget to education & spend it with the same spirit as you spend it your own money for your kids education. I hope you would some day find time to have a look at my comments. Thanks

By: usman55

usman55 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:00:55 +0000

@ Rashid

It is 100 percent wrong to compare rupee against dollar for a simple reason.

Even though our money has not lost value against dollar in mush regime but this has nothing to do with our policies. This is because dollar itself has lost value against all currencies and so did ours. This war on terror has messed US economy as well.

So compare our ruppee against indian currency during last 6 years or against euro.

By: straightarrow

straightarrow — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:27:53 +0000

I think that one of the key issues Mr. Dar needs to bring up is the size of the defence budget. The point is not whether the defence forces are appropriating too much or too little…an empowered parliament needs to know what is being allocated and for what purpose, down to the last detail, and then it should decide how the balance needs to be struck between the country’s legitimate defence needs and the other, perhaps even more pressing needs of its poor man-in-the-street. Pakistan needs to bring its armed forces under the control of civilian law and parliamentary accountability.

By: Rashid

Rashid — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:34:24 +0000

@fantgiri

I agree completely

@nota
As i said my source was UN statistical data sheet. I did not go into details how they came up with these exchange rates, however I expect that they are somewhere close. You can google it “historical exchange rate pakistan”. It very well might be 6.6 on a given day in 1970. still it did not increase 10 fold as suggested by Malek.

@Adonis

When the dollar accounts were frozen, it did touch 70-80 at exchange dealers like Khanani & Kalia.

By: fantagiri

fantagiri — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:54:17 +0000

Ah nothing new. The same old game starts again. I was expecting better things from new Coalition but this listening to new FM - it felt like the way in 90s.

Now they will catch few guys and put them in Jail, bring some useless schemes (which will never benefit poor people) bla bla bla.

I know FM’s job is very tougher this time but I dont think he will be able to get rid of this mess.

And yes officials of last govt. should be accounted (No doubt). But is Mr. Dar doing something new!!!

By: cyrus

cyrus — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:50:54 +0000

Situation is going to get worse and soon when we say NO to US over cross border attacks they are going to stop the aid and then we will get screwed and I mean really screwed…
I watched the press conference and Sherry Rehman had put so much make up and I tried to imagine how she would look without make up and I almost puked.

By: nota

nota — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:46:44 +0000

@Rashid
Wasn’t it Rs. 6.60 per US$ in 1975?
But one must also keep mind how the dollar has depreciated these same years.. Even officially, the Consumer Prce Index(CPI) has gone up more than 5 times ($1 in 1970 = $5.44 in 2008). In reality, the depreciation of the dollar is much worst. Now put that against the rupee depreciation(can buy one-thirteenth) of the dollars it could in 1970) and multiply that with the depreciation of the dollar and we end up the rupee being worth one-seventy third (1/73) of what it was in 1970.

By: Adonis

Adonis — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:33:09 +0000

In 1970s rupee - dollars parity at the rate of 10 Rs. There was no open market at the time so a black market for dollar existed where it traded at a higher price than official rate. When Ghulam Ishaq Khan was finance minister of Ziaul Haq, this fixed peg was removed and dollar was allowed to float. In 1990s, when economy opened up, a free float of currency was allowed.

Dollar was never at 70-80 Rs. The highest that dollar went was 67 Rs in 2001. The dollar rate stabilized when overseas Pakistanis started shifting their savings home due to adverse climate overseas after 9/11. In the last year or so, there has been a lot of outflow of dollars from the country and as a result ruppee has depreciated against dollar.