Senators alarmed by rupee devaluation, dollar shortage

ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in the Senate Monday expressed grave concern over the devaluation of the Pak rupee and the shortage of dollars in the country, and called for a scientific method to deal with the alarming situation, massively affecting the national economy.

Speaking on his motion, JUI-F’s Kamran Murtaza said that the value of the dollar in 1947 was Rs 3.31 but during the last few years, its value increased massively and recently reached Rs 335. He insisted dollar could not be controlled by holding a 2-minute meeting and using force and contended instead that adopting a scientific method was imperative to achieve the desired results.

PTI Senator Mohsin Aziz regretted that the dollar, which fetched Rs 172 before the (PDM) coalition government assumed power, within a year, shot up to Rs 335 against the dollar. He said there were several factors behind it but no serious study was made to fix the problem. One reason, he pointed out was that the difference between the value of the dollar in the open market and the bank rate was enhanced by Rs 35-40. He alleged the flight of the dollar was not controlled deliberately. Likewise, he added the State Bank despite being autonomous, failed to play its role in controlling the flight of the dollar. He advised the Pakistani economists to sit down with Afghan experts to check inflation, and corruption and control the dollar.

Responding to him, PML-N Senator Dr Afnan Ullah Khan said that despite all political and other challenges dollar in the pre-2018 period was valued at Rs 110 but in 2018 when the ‘government of change’ came the dollar’s value shot up to Rs184. Later when the PDM formed the government, the former prime minister started the drive to bankrupt the country. “You will never find such a leader who would launch such a campaign against his own country and the result was obvious, the dollar’s value shot up massively. A country can progress through truth but not by launching a narrative of lies,” he charged.

Leader of the House Muhammad Ishaq Dar said he believes that devaluation is the mother of economic evils. The appreciation of the rupee against the dollar today is due to the ‘Ishaq-Dar’ policy,” the Leader of the House in the Senate, told the upper house after the caretaker government clamped down on elements involved in dollar smuggling and speculators. “The real exchange rate today is 244 to the dollar. Some of our institutions have way too much autonomy, but let me tell you,’ spoiled children deserve the rod’.” Dar said: “a major reason behind our economy’s destruction is the fall in the rupee’s rate against the dollar.”

The senator reminded his colleagues that in 2014 and four years following that, until his removal as the finance minister, the rupee had remained stable. “The central bank’s intervention was only to a certain extent.” He claimed that during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) tenure, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) intervened more often to control the rupee’s value when compared to the stints of the Pakistan Muslim Legaue-Nawaz (PML-N). Against the PMLN policies, the PTI allowed the devaluation of the rupee. See, what happened after that,” he said, claiming it ballooned Pakistan’s loans. The PML-N senator said there needs to be a consensus among all stakeholders to regulate the rupee’s value. “People die, but their policies have led to an increase in the prices of commodities.”

The House was told that there was no shortage of wheat, as the country has ample wheat stocks and concrete measures would be taken to address any flour shortage due to supply chain problems. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Information Murtaza Solangi informed the House while responding to a motion moved by Senator Sania Nishtar of PTI, the government was focused on addressing gaps in the wheat supply chain that may lead to flour shortage.

Earlier, Senator Nishtar had said smuggling might be a major factor behind the shortage of wheat, in addition to the creation of systematic artificial shortages and hoarding. He emphasized the public wheat stock included 39,24,367 metric tons in Punjab, 8,17,394 metric tons in Sindh, 2,15,082 metric tons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 89,354 metric tons in Balochistan, whereas the Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation Ltd (PASSCO) accounted for 17,18,177 metric tons. Moreover, private wheat stock comprises 3,37,270 metric tons in Punjab, 93,165 metric tons in Sindh, 14,918 metric tons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 4,157 metric tons in Balochistan. Solangi said that Pakistan had over seven million (7,213,884) metric tons of wheat, with an additional imported stock of 10,33,845 metric tons, ensuring there was no shortage.

During discussions on the motion, Senator Dilawar Khan said that Pakistan should export wheat rather than import and called for concessions to the agriculture sector. Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri highlighted Balochistan’s agricultural challenges, emphasizing the lack of canal systems. He expressed concern about the removal of subsidies for poor farmers on electricity.

The House witnessed a noisy scene on the rejection of a motion seeking to address the issue of clash of interest of the Chairmen and members of the Senate committees. The proposal for the substitution of Rule 185 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012, was made by Senator Sania Nishtar but it was rejected by the House twice with a majority vote. “Chairman or a Member of the Committee shall be personally responsible for submitting a declaration of financial or personal interests or in case of having no such interests, a declaration of having no financial or personal interest in the matters falling within the jurisdiction of the Committee to the Chairman Senate before the first meeting of the Committee, which shall be recorded by the Secretary Senate in the ‘Conflict of Interest Register’, the proposed amendment read.

The House also passed a resolution expressing deep concern over the situation in the Dasu and Diamer Bhasha dams and asked for recruitment as per the quota fixed for the locals. The resolution was tabled by Muhammad Talha Mahmood. The resolution said that the salary of persons working on the projects should not be less than the minimum wage of Rs 32,000 per month and the labourers should be paid at least Rs 1,500 per day. Additionally, the resolution urged the government to provide compensation to all the affectes of those projects. Moreover, the resolution said that reasonable demands of the people should be accepted and fulfilled so that the work on those projects may be completed amicably without any hurdles.

The chair directed the secretary Senate to seek a report from the chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the killing of a girl in Mansehra on the order of a local jirga. Later the session was prorogued sine die.