Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday gave his green signal to a reported plan by charitable organisations to help raise around $2 billion from overseas Pakistanis as the country’s economy battles challenges on the foreign exchange front.
At the National Islamic Economic Forum’s (NIEF) ‘Defining a roadmap for Islamization of Pakistan’s economy’ in Karachi, Dar advised the group of charity organisations to meet with officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to finalise the mechanism for the proposed fund-raising, which is planned to be “interest-free” for a five-year period.
The Trust and other organisations offered to help raise $2 billion from overseas Pakistanis, a move aimed at dealing with the current economic crisis and a focus on the issue of non-opening of letters of credit (LCs) amid dollar shortage.
Pakistan is currently in the midst of a massive economic battle with the currency hitting yet another record low on Thursday. Its foreign exchange reserves depleted to $3.7 billion last month, an import cover of less than three months.
Its government is currently also locked in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over revival of its bailout programme that got stalled in September last year.
