'Will try my best to pull Pakistan out of maelstrom': Ishaq Dar says upon return to Pakistan after five years

ISLAMABAD: PML-N leader Ishaq Dar has landed in Islamabad ending his five-year self-imposed exile from the United Kingdom, reported Geo.tv.

Dar has returned along with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif who was officially visiting the United Kingdom and the United States for over a week.

The premier and his delegation flew from London to Islamabad in a special aircraft which landed at the Noor Khan airbase, as informed by civil aviation sources.

Following his return, the PML-N leader is making a comeback as the country’s new finance minister.

“I have returned to my country by the grace of God. I will try my best to pull Pakistan out of the [economic] maelstrom it is surrounded with,” Dar said.

He shared that the PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and the prime minister have handed over the responsibility of the finance ministry to him.

“[We] pulled Pakistan out of an economic maelstrom back in 1998 and 2013,” the incoming finance minister said.

New Finance Minister

Following his return, Dar will take the oath as Pakistan's new finance minister on September 27 (tomorrow).

A day earlier, the PML-N supremo suggested Dar leave with the PM, as he will have to return eventually.

The decision was taken after two days of deliberation between the PML-N leadership.

ECP verdict in Dar’s Senate membership case

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday reserved its verdict on a petition seeking to declare Dar’s Senate seat “vacant” over his failure to take oath as a senator within 60 days of the polls.

At the outset of today’s hearing, Salman Aslam Butt, Dar’s counsel, apprised the court that his client’s victory notification as Senator was issued on March 9, 2018.

“On March 29, 2018, the ECP withdrew a notification of Ishaq Dar's election as a senator,” the lawyer added.

It is pertinent to mention here that notification was withdrawn in the light of the Supreme Court's orders as in May 2018, the apex court had suspended Dar’s senatorship on a temporary basis.