Pakistan society has become inherently intolerant: former FM

Miftah Ismail, Pakistan’s former Finance Minister who resigned recently, said that in the last 75 years, the country has “built a society which was inherently intolerant.” He also said that the country’s economic problems were fundamental in nature and were unlikely to get any better in the next 25 years.

The former minister who made way for Ishaq Dar, a close aide of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif said that while the problems are well known, “when it came to solving them, there was a tendency to delay them.”

Ismail in his short lived tenure as the country’s finance minister was instrumental in reviving the International Monetary Fund’s financial assistance package. The IMF has warned that the country is at a challenging economic juncture.

However, his moves also pushed headline inflation and even weakened the (Pakistani) rupee, which brough him under the spotlight. Ismail was also in favour of resuming up imports of vegetables from India.

Pakistan’s already fragile economy has been further hit by massive floods. The loss to the exchequer is estimated to be about a whopping $40 billion.

As Dar’s move will now be scrutinised with a fine tooth-comb, most reports suggested that his policies could push the economy only in the short-term but could be more damaging in the long run.

Also read: Rising terror threats come as another blow to Pakistan’s tottering economy