Dar rubbishes ‘default mantra’ but admits economic situation is dire

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar assured investors on Wednesday that “there’s no way Pakistan is going to default”, though he agreed that all was not well with the economy. “We’re in a tight position. We don’t have $24bn in foreign exchange reserves that our (last) government left in 2016. But that’s not my fault. It’s the system’s fault,” he told investors at a ceremony to mark the listing of Pakistan’s first developmental real estate investment trust scheme on the stock exchange. Mr Dar also assailed “pseudo-intellectuals” for raising the spectre of sovereign default even though the country repaid its $1 billion Islamic bond before maturity early this month. “There’s no way Pakistan is going to default,” he repeatedly declared in his largely backward-looking speech via video link. Mr Dar’s reference to pseudo-intellectuals appears to be a dig at his predecessor Dr Miftah Ismail, a PhD in economics, who has been vocal about the possibility of default in his newspaper columns and TV appearances since leaving office in September.