PM Imran calls emergency meeting following dollar's price hike

ISLAMABAD: Within a jiffy, Prime Minister Imran Khan summoned an emergency meeting of the party leadership following the news of surging price of the US dollar rate which has escalated to Rs 138 against Pakistani rupee in the interbank market on Tuesday.

The session has been called to devise a strategy to handle the opposition parties’ expected criticism. The Prime Minister will head the meeting at the PM’s secretariat in the evening where all leaders were advised to ensure their presence.

According to sources, PM Khan along with his leadership will mull over possible strong retorts to defend the government policies on social and mainstream media.

The US dollar showed an upward trend by Rs11.70 as market opened on Tuesday, however, the rate was Rs124.25 when the market closed on Monday.

This high rate of US dollar has created an uncertain behavior in the market.

According to experts, such inclination in the US dollar rate against Pakistani rupee is an impact of government’s decision to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to handle the financial crisis that Pakistan is facing.

Finance Minister Asad Umar has conveyed a message on Monday night, stating that talks with the IMF will start “instantly” as Prime Minister Imran Khan has given an approval for the same.

According to Asad, Pakistan is facing rough patch, due to the leftover issues of previous government. “We have to find a way to get out of this difficult situation,” he said.

It is expected that Pakistan is likely to demand the IMF to provide almost $6 billion to $7 billion.

Furthermore, On Monday, the stock market showed the downward trend as the KSE-100 lost over 1,300 points during trading.

KSE-100, the benchmark index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange diminished by 1,328.06 points or 3.39% to 37,898.29 points.