Govt will not take over commercial banks' dollars, clarifies Dar.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar clarified on Wednesday that the government would not take over foreign exchange held by commercial banks, saying that his earlier statement on the country's reserves had been twisted by certain sections.

His remarks come days after he said in an interview that Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves stand at $10 billion, a much higher figure than the central bank's $5.6bn reserves as of Dec 30, 2022, because 'dollars held by commercial banks also belonged to the country'. This comment gave rise to fears that the government may confiscate dollars from private banks as had been done in 1998 when Dar was the finance minister.

However, Dar said today that his comment was 'greatly misconstrued' and 'nothing of the sort will happen'.

In a press conference alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other federal cabinet members, Dar elaborated that prior to 1999, every cent that came into the...