Naveed Ahmad Khan
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has once again vented anger on a journalist for questioning the progress on Pakistan-International Monetary (IMF) talks for the revival of the loan programme.
Ishaq Dar, when questioned by the journalist about the status of the Pakistan-IMF talks, got annoyed and ordered the security staff to throw away the journo’s mobile phone.
The video of the incident has surfaced which showed the finance minister walking on the stairs along with his security staff. A journalist started filming him and asking a question, “When will negotiations with IMF be successful? Why talks with the IMF are not being successful?”
The questions apparently irked Dar a lot as he ordered his security staff to throw away the journalist’s mobile phone. The security staff tried to snatch the journalist’s mobile phone following the senator’s order.
The journalist namely Shahid Qureshi is a private news channel, Ausaf Broadcasting Network (ABN) reporter. In a video statement, Shahid Qureshi said that Ishaq Dar slapped him for an IMF-related question and ordered his security staff to teach him a lesson.
In May, Dar lost his cool over ‘tough’ questions from journalists about the revival of the country’s economy. Dar was responding to questions from the media men after addressing the inaugural session of the International Conference on Islamic Capital Market in Islamabad.
Ishaq Dar sahab! Have you failed? Staff-level agreement with IMF still not signed, the journalist asked.
The PML-N leader got furious and asked a question to journo in reply, has Pakistan defaulted? “We have paid all international loan payments.”
The finance minister while responding to another question on the economy said “Whatever decision you want to give, go ahead, I will see it, later.”
Ishaq Dar avoided responding to queries regarding the upcoming budget of FY2023-24 and the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme.