Pakistan appoints new finance minister amid economic crisis

Pakistan appointed a new finance minister on Wednesday, as the impoverished Islamic nation struggles to recover from an economic crisis worsened by deadly floods.

Ishaq Dar, a senior figure in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, has been finance minister three times, and he is credited with overcoming economic turmoil during his previous stints in the role.

His challenges will be to convince the International Monetary Fund to soften some of its conditions under which Pakistan received a $6 billion bailout in 2019 and to deal with the economic devastation caused by unprecedented flooding.

He will also have to tackle a sharp rise in inflation and stabilize the rupee after it plummeted to a record record low of 240 against the U.S. dollar last week.

Dar’s appointment comes as Pakistan struggles with the aftermath of historic flooding, which has killed 1,663 people, affected tens of million others, and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The government has estimated losses of $30 billion.

The group came into existence in 2006 to counter Hindu-nationalist groups with the merger of the Karnataka Forum for Dignity and the National Development Front.

Mohammed Tahir, a counsel for the PFI, said the government failed to present evidence of the organization receiving outside money and funding terror activities in India by organizing riots in cities and attacks on Hindu organizations and its leaders.

Violent crimes carried out by PFI over the years included chopping off the hand of a college professor, killings of people associated with other religious organizations, supporting the Islamic State group and destruction of property, India’s National Investigating Agency said.

These violent acts “have had a demonstrative effect of striking terror in the minds of the citizens,” it said in a statement.

Critics of Modi say his Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide reelection in 2019 has emboldened the home ministry and investigating agencies to declare individuals terrorists based solely on accusations, revoke the partial autonomy of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, and implement a citizens’ registry in the northeastern state of Assam that excluded 2 million people, many of them Muslim.

The PFI ban was invoked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which gives extraordinary powers to the government to deal with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India. It can designate individuals as terrorists pending court trials.