From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: PTI Senator Shaukat Tarin on Wednesday said the ongoing wave of inflation and rupee depreciation showed the public had lost faith in the government, as he called for early elections and added that the PTI would cooperate in the formation of an interim setup.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the former finance minister said: “This inflation and the depreciation of the rupee make it clear the market and the public has lost its trust in you. Your credibility has finished and there is only one solution: announce general elections and bring a credible interim government.
“We, too, will cooperate with an interim government.” Tarin said the country needed to be taken out of the economic and political “mess” it was in.
The former finance minister criticised how the rupee’s continuous depreciation against the dollar was being managed, decrying that it had been completely abandoned to open-market operations, instead of a regulated rate being maintained by the State Bank.
He said the central bank needed to intervene and devise a mechanism to regulate the exchange rate to some extent, adding that the PTI was also ready to help out and offer advice in this regard. Tarin also attributed the market’s falling confidence and the rupee’s depreciation to the Punjab by-elections, saying that the business community was predicting a change of government, which would add to further political uncertainty.
