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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s former finance minister Ishaq Dar was named the country’s foreign minister on Monday as growing economic and security challenges dominate the country’s foreign policy.
Dar, 73, is a certified public accountant and experienced politician from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Party (PML-N), which is leading a minority government as part of a ruling coalition. .
He is a close relative and close aide of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
The senator, who has previously served as finance minister, is playing a role in economics’s foreign policy as the country looks to enter into new International Monetary Fund agreements and increase external financing from foreign capital. suggests that it will be strengthened.
“Economic diplomacy is definitely the need of the day,” Dar told Reuters.
But even his political allies have criticized his economic performance during his tenure as finance minister in the last coalition government, which took over in April 2022 after former prime minister Imran Khan was removed in a vote of confidence in parliament. criticizes the response.
During Dar’s 16-month term, inflation soared to 38% and interest rates to 22%, largely due to IMF policy requirements.
Mr. Dar defended his actions and said tough steps had to be taken to avoid a sovereign default by securing the IMF program, which Mr. Khan derailed just days before leaving office. However, the former cricket star denies the accusations.
But under Dar’s government, Pakistan struggled for seven months to lift the remaining parts of its last $6.5 billion bailout program, and finally secured a new last-ditch deal for Shehbaz Sharif. His intervention was required.
Meanwhile, Dar regularly criticized the IMF in public during negotiations. He is best known for supporting market intervention to prop up the Pakistani rupee, something the IMF has warned against.
In his new role, Mr. Dar will have to deal with delicate relationships, including with China, the cash-strapped Pakistan’s main source of funding, the Gulf states and even Washington.
He also faces thorny issues such as arch-rival India, which is due to vote this year, and Taliban-led Afghanistan, which Pakistan accuses of harboring insurgents who have stepped up attacks on Pakistani territory. It is also facing similar problems in neighboring countries. The Taliban denies the claims.
Mr Dar will have to overcome these challenges with a minority government that relies on the support of various political parties to pass important legislation, and his alliance partner Pakistan Peoples Party has said it will support the government on an issue-by-issue basis.
Although he denies intervening in politics in his role, he will also need to take into account the country’s powerful military, which has maintained significant influence over the country’s foreign policy.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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