Finance Minister of Pakistan - Asad Umar
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2018
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It took former cricketer Imran Khan two decades of political slog to win power in Pakistan. It’s taken his critics just months to decide he’s out of his depth. They point to the country’s crippled economy, propped up by emergency loans despite the Prime Minister's promise to end the begging bowl culture. Is the PTI government strong enough to put Pakistan on a new course? Stephen Sackur speaks to Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Asad Umar.
(Photo: Asad Umar. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:06.7 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:11.5 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saker. My guest today has a huge |
| 0:17.8 | job on his hands. Asad Umar is Pakistan's finance minister. |
| 0:22.6 | The man responsible for making good on Prime Minister Imran Khan's promise to end Pakistan's |
| 0:28.6 | reliance on emergency financial aid to prop up an economy crippled by debt and addicted |
| 0:35.0 | to unaffordable spending. |
| 0:37.2 | Thus far, there is little sign of a new era of fiscal |
| 0:41.0 | discipline. The country's currency reserves are dangerously depleted, and the PM and his finance |
| 0:46.6 | minister have sought emergency loans from China and Saudi Arabia to stave off disaster. The IMF is also considering another bailout package, |
| 0:56.8 | but only if Pakistan undertakes serious financial reform. For all of the excitement generated |
| 1:02.8 | by Imran Khan on the campaign trail, he appears to be finding the business of governing a country |
| 1:08.9 | beset by concerns over security, extremism and corruption, |
| 1:13.8 | much more difficult. Is Pakistan's new government out of its depth? Well, finance minister |
| 1:19.7 | Assad Umar joins me now on the line from Islamabad. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. You are one of the |
| 1:27.4 | key ministers in Imran Khan's government. Why do you think the |
| 1:31.3 | hope and excitement generated by Imran's election victory has worn off so very quickly? |
| 1:39.3 | Actually, it hasn't. If you look at Pakistani media and listen to the political talk shows and maybe here are some of the discussions going on in the parliament, you might be led into believing what you just said. |
| 1:51.0 | But in reality, you know, when the first 100 days of the government ended, there was a lot of focus, a number of surveys got carried out. |
| 1:57.0 | And if you look at the surveys, a very clear majority of Pakistani thinks that |
| 2:01.9 | country is moving in the right direction. It is moving towards a place where it is better than |
| 2:08.0 | where it was earlier. And hope is very much in the air. The truth is, the country isn't going |
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