Dar’s unyielding pledge: nuclear and missile programs here to stay

ISLAMABAD    –   Finance Minister Ish­aq Dar has made it clear that nobody in Pakistan can compromise the nu­clear and missile assets of the country, despite tough economic condi­tions and hurdles to se­cure a loan from the IMF.

“We are a sovereign nation and nobody in the world has the right to tell us what range of missiles we should have,” the minister said this during the Senate Committee of the Whole meeting here yesterday.

Responding to a query from Senator Raza Rab­bani, he assured that de­tails of the staff-level agreement with the In­ternational Monetary Fund will be made public.

“Once the agreement is signed, it will be put on the website of the Finance Ministry for review of the general public and nothing will be concealed.

Dar also said he be­lieves in transparency and fiscal discipline in the country.

Meanwhile, Ishaq Dar in a tweet disclosed that Pakistan is all set to re­ceive much needed an­other loan tranche of $500 million from China in next few days, which would build the coun­try’s foreign exchange reserves as the docu­mentation in this regard has been completed by finance ministry.

“Out of Chinese IC­BC’s approved roll­over facility of $1.3 bil­lion (which was earlier repaid by Pakistan to ICBC in recent months), documentation for sec­ond disbursement of $500 million has been completed by Finance Ministry for release of funds to the State Bank of Pakistan,” he said. The government is ex­pecting to receive the amount in next few days.

The inflow of $500 million would bring to­tal Chinese commercial loans up to $1.7 billion in recent weeks. Pa­kistan had already re­ceived around $1.2 bil­lion from China in the last few days. Pakistan is ex­pecting to receive anoth­er $800 million from China in two tranches in the ongo­ing month, making the over­all financing from the friend­ly country to reach $2 billion. The Chinese loan inflow has helped in building the coun­try’s foreign exchange re­serves. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $9.846 billion as of 10th March, 2023. The break-up of foreign reserves posi­tion according to foreign re­serves held by the State Bank of Pakistan is $4.319 billion, and net foreign reserves held by commercial banks are $ 5.52 billion. “During the week ended on 10-Mar-2023, SBP’s reserves increased by $18 mil­lion to $4,319.1 million,” the State Bank of Pakistan stated on Thursday. Meanwhile, Pa­kistan is working to fulfil an­other prior action of the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) to give written commitment from the friendly countries for external financing during the current fiscal year to revive the much needed loan pro­gramme. Friendly countries including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have pledged with Pakistan to deposit two billion dollars and one billion dollars respective­ly in State Bank of Pakistan’s account. Meanwhile, Qatar had shown interest in making huge investment by purchas­ing power plants.

Article source: https://www.nation.com.pk/17-Mar-2023/governdar-s-unyielding-pledge-nuclear-and-missile-programs-here-to-stay