Pakistan appoints new finance minister amid economic crisis

By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has appointed a new finance minister as the country struggles with an economic crisis. Ishaq Dar, who has held the role three times, was sworn in during a brief ceremony on Wednesday in the capital Islamabad. Dar, an accountant, returned to the country on Monday after five years of self-exile in the UK. His immediate challenge will be to convince the International Monetary Fund to soften some of its conditions under which Pakistan received a $6 billion bailout in 2019. The impoverished nation is struggling with the aftermath of historic flooding, which has killed more than a thousand people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.