KARACHI: “A firm decision has been taken and we stand by it. Any talk of our being forced to revise this decision in the future is the outcome of wishful thinking and should be ignored. The Government will do everything in its power to enforce the decision taken and to resolve any difficulties that may arise or be created for us.”

This stern note was struck by Finance Minister Ghulam Mohammad in a broadcast talk from Radio Pakistan … on Saturday [Oct 15] while referring to the Indian Finance Minister, Dr John Matthai’s recent utterance predicting devaluation of the Pakistani rupee. … Mr Ghulam Mohammad also reminded Dr Matthai of his false pre-partition forecasts about Pakistan’s economy. Emphasising that the non-devaluation decision was taken [in] “the interests of Pakistan and Pakistan alone”, the Finance Minister said that it coincided with the requirements of the sterling area, as enunciated at the last meeting of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Conference.

[Meanwhile, according to the Karachi correspondent,] the Government … have decided to set up two stock exchanges … at Dacca and … Chittagong… .

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2024