Ishaq Dar

Who is Ishaq Dar?

Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar is a chartered accountant, financial-cum-economic expert and the incumbent federal finance minister of Pakistan. He served as the commerce minister once, finance minister thrice and also as the leader of the opposition in the Senate of Pakistan. He was pivotal in negotiating an IMF rescue package to meet an economic crisis triggered by sanctions imposed on Pakistan after the nuclear tests in May 1998.

Dar's first term as finance minister was cut short by coup d'état by General Pervez Musharraf. His past economic policies have emphasised greatly on export-led growth and are often criticised by economists at the World Bank who make fun of them by nicknaming them "Darnomics". He served as the finance minister a second time during the PPP-led coalition government in 2008. Following political differences, PML-N ministers including Dar resigned just six months into the new government. He became the finance minister for a third time on 7 June 2013 after the 2013 general elections.

Dar was elected unopposed in the 2012 Senate elections and was nominated as the leader of the opposition in the Senate on 14 March 2012. He is currently PML-N's parliamentary leader in the Senate. Dar has a strong alliance with prime minister Nawaz Sharif going back decades to the time when Dar worked as a young clerk for Sharif's Ittefaq Group. After the marriage of his eldest son Ali Mustafa Dar with Sharif's daughter Asma Nawaz in 2004, this relationship was further cemented.