Darnomics not to be run by Dar, clarifies finance ministry

The Ministry of Finance said on Thursday that a media report claiming Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had been handed the budget-making process was “misleading” and “factually incorrect”.

The clarification came after a report published by The Express Tribune said the government had “handed over the responsibility of making the new budget to Dar after it found the initial work below par”.

“There is absolutely no reason to assume that the policy of Darnomics is being run directly by Dar,” said a ministry spokesperson at the Press Information Department in Islamabad.

“The honourable foreign minister, who is also the deputy prime minister, will have no role in policy making regarding a policy of his making,” said the spokesperson.

“Yes, the deputy PM did chair a meeting of the newly formed committee to deliberate on tax policy proposals for the upcoming budget, as per a statement from his own office, but that does not mean what it means,” she further clarified, while answering a question.

“Finance Minister Aurangzeb is firmly in the saddle and is taking instructions from no one except the IMF…., I mean the Prime Minister. Which, by extension, yes, also means his deputy,” she said.

Economist Dr Saleem Khan, when speaking to Profit, said that Darnomics, in its actual sense, is a thing of the past, whether or not Dar is doing it.

“But only because they don’t have enough dollars to throw at the market to buoy up the rupee,” he said. “The rest, like not being innovative about meaningful expansions of the tax base and more external borrowings, that all will remain as is.”