ISLAMABAD: Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has challenged the formation, time-limit and terms and conditions of the Commission, constituted by Prime Minister Imran Khan on foreign loans of a period of ten-year.
In a statement issued from London, he said the Commission was constituted out of frustration that speaks high of failure of PTI government’s economic policies.
He said composition of the Commission is unacceptable since it consists of not non-professional people. It was also an attempt by the Prime Minister to hijack NAB that is an independent body, as the Commission will be headed by its deputy head.
He was of the view that the period of the loans’ inquiry should be started from 1999, when coup was planted against the PML’s government by General (Rtd) Pervez Musharraf.
Justifying the loans acquired by the government of PML (N), he said these are fully documented, having the backing of the Parliament.
This Commission, he said is similar to the loans’ probe Committee formed by Musharraf’s government and it was found that not a single penny was embezzled or misappropriated by the PML(N) government.
Earlier, in an interview Ishaq Dar dispelled the impression that there is any illegality or misappropriation took place in issuance of Euro bonds of dollar 500 million in 2015.
The bonds were floated after going through the due legal process in a transparent way. Ministry of Finance, State of Pakistan and Law Ministry were involved in the whole matter and it was fully vetted by the legal adviser.
He clarified that the Euro bands were floated in 2016 in order to get matured those bonds issued earlier in 2016. Virtually, it helped raising the foreign reserves to dollar 24 billion. The government of Pakistan that time utilized it for repayment of old loans and managing domestic commercial loans, he added.
