An Islamic prayer to ward off anxiety and depression was tweeted earlier this week by Pakistan’s finance minister Ishaq Dar. While the minister tweeted citation of a prayer to his followers, many users from Pakistan interpreted it as his way to deal with the deteriorating financial situation in the country.
The supposed prayer to ward mental health problems off, stoked people to ask if the minister knew any prayers to ensure that the country doesn’t default on the loans it has taken from various countries and multilateral organisations.
“Brother, tell us the prayer to prevent the loan default as well,” one user replied.
“It surely means that economic situation is out of hand and even the outspoken and self proclaimed experienced Finance Minister is praying to Allah to save him from public backlash amid imminent default threat the country is facing,” another wrote.
“The best thing our finance minister has done for us since returning back from a trip at UK is releasing his own assets from NAB,” a third Twitter user wrote.
Earlier this week, Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) called upon the State Bank of Pakistan to take necessary measures against the ‘financial emergency’ in the country.
“We still have foreign debt of $130 billion and $73 billion due in three years. Our deficit for next three years is a minimum of $20 to $30 billion. Additionally, super inflation is killing the poor. This is a financial emergency,” PBF CEO, Ahmad Jawad said in a statement.
