Shaukat Tareen, the newly-appointed adviser to the prime minister on finance matters, left for the United States Thursday to seek funds to finance Pakistan's sagging economy. Before his departure, he dispelled rumors of imminent bank default in the wake of severe liquidity crunch and foreign exchange exodus. He assured the nation that the prevailing financial crisis would end in the coming days as the government had intensified efforts to increase foreign currency reserves. Tareen said the depreciation of the rupee reflected its original worth after five years of artificially-capped value. About the vulnerability of the rupee in the money market, he said it is “being manipulated by some people for their own vested interests.” He alleged that a bank cartel was behind the sudden depreciation of the rupee. “Those who have accumulated dollars will see what will happen (to them),” he said. Tareen said he was going to Washington early to arrange foreign currency inflows into Pakistan. Without deliberating on the sources, he said the government would be able to arrange enough amount of assistance in the next four weeks to lift the country out of the present crisis. He said there was no change in the government's stance of privatizing state-run companies. He said that foreign exchange reserves would be built up with the help of sufficient inflows being arranged. He said sufficient inflows would put pressure on speculators who were holding dollars. They will learn a lesson, he said. Tareen said that notions about the bankruptcy of Pakistan were baseless and the government was neither going to seal bank lockers nor freeze foreign currency accounts. He said the government would enhance the confidence of investors through concrete measures and alleviation of poverty would be among the topmost priorities. He said the previous government had maintained the artificial price of the dollar at Rs 62 and said that the rupee would regain its value within four to six weeks. __
