Economy can't be fixed in a jiffy: Dar

Former finance minister says it will take up to 15 years for the country to recover

LAHORE:

PML-N leader and former finance minister Ishaq Dar has said the country's economy cannot be fixed overnight and it will take 10 to 15 years for the country to recover.

"There is an economic plan in place to help the people if they choose [PML-N supreme leader] Nawaz Sharif in this election," Dar said on Saturday ahead of Nawaz's arrival in Lahore ending his four-year self-exile in London.

Dar, who was talking to Express News, said the last 16 months were not for economic recovery but to save Pakistan from default. The PML-N led coalition government installed after the ouster of the PTI's government in April last year had faced massive criticism for a phenomenal rise in inflation.

Defending its performance, Dar claimed that the last PML-N government did not allow Pakistan to become another Sri Lanka.

In April 2022, Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time, triggering the worst economic crisis in its history.
The former finance minister said the cases filed against Nawaz were fraudulent and that the former premier would soon be acquitted.

"The Panama Papers case was just a drama. Nothing has been proven [against Nawaz]," he said.

The apex court disqualified Nawaz as a lawmaker in the Panama Papers' case in July 2017.

Later, the former premier was also convicted in two corruption cases, one in July and the other in December 2018.

The last PTI government allowed Nawaz to get medical treatment abroad in Oct 2019 due to some health complications. The PML-N leader, however, returned to the country on Saturday only after a lapse of four years.

Dar said the former premier had been in London for medical treatment. "Nawaz Sharif now has no plans to leave the country," he said.