By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Asad Umar on Friday rejected claims by an ex-tax chief that the previous government of Imran Khan was on the verge of defaulting on its debt in 2019.
Umar, a senior leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was responding to an interview by Shabbar Zaidi, the former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), on a private television channel.
Zaidi said he had warned Khan in April 2019 that the government was running out of foreign exchange reserves and needed to seek an IMF bailout.
Zaidi said Khan had then asked Umar, the finance minister at that time, to confirm the situation, and Umar had admitted it was true. Zaidi said Umar was removed as finance minister shortly after this exchange.
Umar challenged Zaidi’s account, saying the foreign exchange reserves of the central bank were $8.7 billion at the end of April 2019, down from $9.8 billion in August 2018 when the government took office.
“From where did this story of default spring up? During the current government’s tenure, the foreign exchange reserves went lower than $3 billion and even then, there was no default on debt, then how could there be a default when reserves were $8.7 billion?” he tweeted.
Zaidi later said his interview should not be judged based on a few seconds of video clips and that he had criticised the system, not the party.
He said he had publicly supported Khan’s economic policy but had faced resistance from politicians and businessmen when he tried to broaden the tax base and crack down on evasion.
Zaidi also claimed he had received a call from former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, who asked him to lower the property valuation rates set by the FBR after complaints from real estate dealers of military-managed housing schemes.
Khan’s PTI party issued a statement saying Zaidi’s claims were “disappointing”, “contradictory” and “baseless”.
“Shabar Zaidi’s contradictory and baseless claims are signs of a confused mind,” the statement said.
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