No matter what Ishaq Dar says, your dollars are not his

Panic was high following Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar’s remarks in an interview where he said that the dollars held by commercial banks also belonged to the country; making the reserves roughly $10 billion. The comment created a panic sentiment amongst dollar depositors in the country worrying about the government taking over their reserves.

Why did people panic?

This is not the first time depositors of foreign exchange found themselves in a tough position. In 1998, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif declared a state of emergency following Pakistan testing five nuclear devices. The US government had imposed economic sanctions on Pakistan, along with Japan, one of the largest aid donors of the country.

As a result of a surprise move, on May 28, the government ordered banks to remain closed across the country; and all foreign currency accounts worth $7 billion were frozen. The finance minister at that time Sartaj Aziz said that these measures were necessary to stop the flight of foreign money which would bankrupt the country.

 

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Ariba Shahid
Ariba Shahid
The author is a business journalist at Profit. She can be reached at [email protected] or at twitter.com/AribaShahid

3 COMMENTS

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  2. 𝑰 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒚𝒑𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔. 𝑴𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒃𝒚𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 $200,000 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 $400,000 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 2 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔. 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒊 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒊 𝒋𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 $150,000 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 $300,000 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒊. 𝑰 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒇𝒖𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒚 2 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒆, 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒎, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒃𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒇 $650,000. 𝑾𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 72𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔, 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚. 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒚@𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏.𝒄𝒐𝒎.

  3. The remarks made by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in the interview caused panic among dollar depositors in the country. The statement suggesting that the dollars held by commercial banks also belonged to the country and that the government could potentially take over those reserves created a sense of uncertainty and concern among depositors.

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