Dar should clarify if IMF asked Pakistan to give up nuclear weapons: Qureshi

Qureshi claims that Dar’s statement has created a new crisis in the country.
He questioned why Dar issued the statement despite the FO’s explanation.
He added that no one has the right to ask about our nuclear program.

Vice Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Shah Mehmood Qureshi Finance Minister asked the question on Sunday. Statement by Ishaq Dar On nuclear weapons in the Senate, the senator was asked to clarify whether the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had asked Pakistan to give up its missile system.

Addressing the press conference, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the Finance Minister is the father-in-law of the ruling party and his statement on the Senate floor is important.

The former foreign minister said the statement had created a new crisis in the country, the Foreign Office spokesman had to explain during the weekly press briefing.

The spokesman says that the discussion regarding nuclear energy is not in the agenda of the discussion with any country or financial institution. [then] Why did Ishaq Dar make this statement in the Senate?

“Tell us, did the IMF ask you for a missile system, Ishaq Dar? Why did you make such a big statement on the floor of the House?” Qureshi asked. do not have.

“Our nuclear [weapons] They are for our defense,” the PTI leader said. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani has also asked the Prime Minister to give a policy statement on nuclear weapons.

Qureshi said that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, his successor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, should have issued an explanation.

‘No Compromise’

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Dar said in his address to the Senate that Pakistan would not compromise on its nuclear program to revive the stalled IMF loan facility.

The finance minister’s comments came in response to concerns raised by Senator Raza Rabbani during a Senate session, in which he questioned whether the IMF program was being delayed so that the government could protect state interests. can be forced to take action against

“I believe in transparency and fiscal discipline. […] I assure you there is none. [ready] Compromise on Pakistan’s nuclear or missile program. No way!” he insisted.

The finance minister said that no one has the right to dictate “how many missiles and what nuclear weapons Pakistan can have; we have to have our own deterrence”.

Minister Dar said that the current government did not enter into an ongoing agreement with the IMF and noted that it was the PTI-led administration that entered the program in 2019.

“This program should have been completed in 2022,” he said, criticizing the PTI government for bowing to IMF demands, including the independence of the State Bank of Pakistan.

He said that earlier there were reviews that were completed but now it seems that each review has become a new program which is very unusual with the IMF.

The finance minister said the delay was not part of the current government and claimed he had been involved in extensive engagements with the IMF that were “unusual, very long, very long, very demanding”.