Ishaq Dar declared ‘finance minister of the year’

It is just an ordinary routine affair for Emerging Markets to nominate a personality as a top banker:Dr Ashfaque Khan

ISLAMABAD: A private publication, Emerging Markets has declared Ishaq Dar as ‘Finance Minister of the year 2016 for South Asia’, said the finance ministry, on Saturday, while presenting it as a big achievement for the country.

“Emerging Markets, the newspaper of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting, has declared Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar as ‘Finance Minister of the year 2016 for South Asia’,” reads an official handout. However, people who have worked in the IMF and the WB said the publication does not belong to the IMF or the WB.

“The award is recognition of Pakistan’s economic performance at the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting which is one of the major gatherings of international financial and economic leaders and experts,” said the ministry.



It is a United Kingdom based publication and is a subsidiary of Euromoney Trading Limited/Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. The Euromoney Institutional Investor defines itself as “an international business-to-business information company focusing on the global financial community”.

The Euromoney – a similar private publication, also declared Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Ashraf Wathra, as ‘Central Bank Governor of the Year 2016’.

“It is just an ordinary routine affair for Emerging Markets to nominate a personality as a top banker, or a finance minister during the annual and spring meetings,” said Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, who in the past has dealt with these publications. “Former banker Syed Ali Raza and former finance minister Shaukat Aziz also won such awards in the past,” said Dr Ashfaque.

The Pakistanis who have worked in Washington with the IMF and the WB also said the newspaper brings out special editions at the time of spring and annual meetings of the IMF and the WB and publishes interviews of finance ministers and heads of central banks.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has nominated Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States, Jalil Abbas Jilani to receive the award on this behalf. The finance minister had to cancel his visit to Washington for the annual meeting due to situation on the Line of Control, the All-Parties Conference and Joint Session of the Parliament on Kashmir situation.



“While we recognise it has been difficult times in the international financial markets, your stewardship of your nation’s finances has been admirable since taking over,” wrote Toby Fildes, the Managing Editor of Emerging Markets. The Finance Ministry released the letter along with the handout.

“Pakistan has, under your guidance, become an increasingly important regional economy thanks to the focus put on growing FDI (foreign direct investment), the impressive reputation of economic competence, the desire to have a greater presence in the global capital markets, the new securities legislation, the clever merger of the stock exchanges and its increasingly important relationship with China,” Fildes noted in his letter.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2016.