Rumours of Pakistan bankruptcy baseless: Tareen

CNews ISLAMABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tareen Wednesday said that notions about the bankruptcy of Pakistan are baseless and the government is neither going to seal bank lockers nor freezing foreign currency accounts. In an exclusive interview with a local news agency after taking charge as Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tareen said the government would enhance the confidence of investors through concrete measures and alleviation of poverty would be among the topmost priorities. He said the previous government maintained the artificial price of dollar at Rs62 and assured that the rupee would regain its value within four to six weeks. The Advisor said that he would come up to the expectations of President Asif Ali Zardari who reposed confidence in his abilities and handed over this great responsibility. Shaukat Tareen said the government would devise a special strategy to alleviate poverty from the country and would increase annual growth rate by promoting agriculture and industry, adding that special measures would be taken to promote our agricultural sector. He said the new strategy would keep special focus on increasing national exports and decreasing imports by enhancing dependence on the domestic products to save more foreign reserves. "We can afford decline in annual economic growth rate but not increase in national imports," he added. He said on his return from the US visit, he would help restore the confidence of the investors to assure them that the economic reforms would continue and no basic change would be made in the economic policies of the country. He said not only the local, but also the foreign investors would be taken into confidence to establish the fact that the government is business-friendly. "The government is striving to resolve all the issues confronting the local industry and it would welcome the positive suggestions and recommendation from the business community in this regard," he added. The Advisor said that Pakistan was not facing that financial crisis like some other countries because our banking system is on sound footing. However, there is lack of confidence and the major issue is the deficiency of the capital, which would be resolved through effective policies being formulated by the government. Shaukat Tareen said the constant depreciation of the rupee value was the result of the wrong economic policies of the previous government, which he said, "maintained artificial parity of dollar between Rs60 to 62 which proved a suicide for national economy." He said the rumors in the market also depreciated the rupee value but hoped that the situation would come to normalcy within four to six weeks as rupee is regaining its value, adding that it seemed difficult that rupee-dollar parity comes to its old value. Shaukat Tareen said the decreasing trend of oil prices in international market would bring positive effects in domestic market and reduce our import bill. He said though there are some economic challenges confronting the country, the situation is not out of control and "I am sure that the situation would improve within few days."