Won’t allow manipulation of exchange rate: Ishaq Dar

Newly sworn-in Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said strengthening of rupee value would be his top priority, followed by reducing the inflation and interest rates in order of priority, to revive the economy.

Speaking to journalists outside the ministry office, where he came after taking oath of the office, the fourth time minister for finance and revenue said nobody would be allowed to play with the exchange rate.

“This is not the right place where rupee stands at present,” he said, adding that he knew some speculators were involved in this game that they should stop forthwith. He said he was happy that speculators had already made corrections in two days and improvement in rupee value had reduced the debt worth billions of rupees. “The speculators should set their direction right. This is my top priority to strengthen rupee value. Then we have to reduce inflation and cut down interest rates because we have to revive the economy”.

He said central banks throughout the world had the role to make interventions in the market and there were standards to do that. Responding to a question he said it was big lie that PML-N government burnt dollars in the market to control exchange rate. “There were no dollars, how could one throw dollars,” he said.

6 more die of gastro, and other illnesses amid rising disease incidence in Sindh

As more than 78,000 patients showed up in health camps in the flood-hit areas of Sindh in the past 24 hours, disease outbreaks continue to be a worry in the province, where six more died of gastroenteritis and other illnesses.

According to the provincial health department, two died of gastroenteritis, two of pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) — a condition in which a person has a temperature accompanied by more than three weeks of illness — and one each of myocardial infarction and cardiopulmonary arrest.

The department said in a daily situation report on Wednesday that various diseases had claimed 324 lives in the province since July 1.

Sindh, where floodwaters descending from the country’s north and hill torrents from Balochistan have converged to give rise to a health crisis, has seen thousands displaced by deluges and now being inflicted by various diseases, mainly water-borne.

With Pakistan’s already weak health system and lack of support, displaced families have complained of being forced to drink and cook with disease-ridden water.