ISLAMABAD
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that Qatar is interested in leasing Pakistan’s airports. He was addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Friday.
Miftah said that Qatar is going to invest in seaports, LNG plants, and solar power plants. They are also interested in entering Pakistan Stock Exchange, he said. He denied media reports about handing over New York’s Roosevelt Hotel and Pakistan International Airline. He said these topics did not come under discussion.
His statement comes a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif concluded his maiden official visit to the Gulf kingdom since assuming office in April.
The minister said that the meeting of the International Monetary Fund’s executive board is taking place on Monday which will approve the release of funds.
He claimed that Pakistan has already fulfilled all the pre-conditions for the disbursement of the loan tranche. Miftah said that the Fuel Charges Adjustment (FCA) that came with the electricity bills of August was for the month of May. It increases the per unit price of electricity by Rs7, he said.
He said that the government has talked to the IMF about this and decided not to collect FCA from consumers using less than 200 units of electricity. This would cost us almost Rs21 billion, he added. He also said that a committee has been constituted to consider reduction for the consumers using 200 to 300 units.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a meeting this morning. He also met ambassadors of different and apprise them about Pakistan’s needs. The World Bank has approved $370 million for Pakistan, he said.
The minister said that the federal government has released Rs28 billion for BISP. As many as 1.15 million will be given Rs25,000, each. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has been given Rs5 billion for relief activities, he added.
When a reporter asked the finance minister about the massive gap of Rs10 in the dollar exchange rate offered in the open market viz a viz interbank, he said that he is aware of what’s happening in the currency market and promised action over the widening exchange rate gap between interbank and open market. Miftah said that the IMF has not set any exchange rate target for Pakistan.
