WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that 10 months were long enough for the government to stage a political comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to choose between saving our politics or saving the state. And we chose to save the state,\u201d Minister Dar said at a news conference at the Pakistan embassy. \u201cWe knew it will have consequences, but we opted for the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
The finance minister was in Washington to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and almost all his meetings focused on the economy and the impact of the recent floods on the people and the infrastructure.<\/p>\n
But several initial questions at the conference focused on the result of Sunday\u2019s elections that gave an unprecedented victory to PTI. Commenting on the results, Mr Dar said that the parties now in the government were aware of \u201cthe consequences\u201d of moving the vote of no confidence but they went for it because not doing so would have disastrous consequences for Pakistan. \u201cAllowing the previous government to continue would have been worse than the floods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked if President Biden\u2019s remarks on Pakistan\u2019s nuclear programme helped Imran Khan\u2019s election campaign, the finance minister reiterated the prime minister\u2019s assurance that the country had a robust command and control system and US officials often acknowledged it too. \u201cBut when a politician who has been a PM (Mr Khan) says the nuclear programme was good under me, but not now, this is how the world would react,\u201d he added. \u201cYou should condemn him; he is doing petty politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his opening statement, the minister said during his four-day stay in Washington he had 58 meetings with the chiefs of international financial institutions and with US, Saudi and other officials. The World Bank and Britain, he said, also hosted a roundtable on floods, where UNDP, ADB and WB officials presented a joint report.<\/p>\n
According to this report, the floods have caused a total loss of over $32.4 billion to the country. Pakistan needs more than $16 billion for immediate relief and rehabilitation works. The meeting, the minister said, made a strong appeal to the international community to help Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that 10 months were long enough for the government to stage a political comeback. \u201cWe had to choose between saving our politics or saving the state. And we chose to save the state,\u201d Minister Dar said at a news conference at the Pakistan embassy. \u201cWe knew it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5391,11093,1925],"class_list":{"0":"post-289814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-comeback","9":"tag-enough-time","10":"tag-ishaq-dar"},"yoast_head":"\n