KARACHI: Former finance minister Miftah Ismail has stated that no political leader or martial law can improve the system in Pakistan until “we make systemic changes.”
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader in an exclusive interview with a private TV channel highlighted the problems faced by Pakistanis, identified where these problems lied, and suggested some possible solutions to manage the situation.
He believed that whether Pakistanis had Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, his party supremo Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari or martial law, nothing will improve the system until “we make systemic changes”.
Miftah, who served as the finance minister under the current coalition government for just over five months, has been quite vocal about certain party decisions and especially the policies of the incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
Since the former finance czar was “fired” in September as the top leadership of PML-N wanted to bring Dar, Miftah has not been a part of the government’s economic team and spearheading the “Reimagining Pakistan” campaign along with other political leaders in an effort to develop a consensus on the strategy to steer the country out of crises.
“We still have half of our school-going children out of schools which means they will grow up to be not literate and if half your population is not literate then I don’t really care who the finance minister is as this country’s economy will not do well,” he said, lamenting the conditions of the people in Pakistan who are reeling with the impact of the record-breaking inflation – which he termed as the “worst challenge” for the country at the moment. Inflation based on the consumer price index clocked in at 31.5% last month after nearly five decades suggesting that with each passing day, Pakistanis are losing their purchasing power.
