WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that 10 months were long enough for the government to stage a political comeback.

“We had to choose between saving our politics or saving the state. And we chose to save the state,” Minister Dar said at a news conference at the Pakistan embassy. “We knew it will have consequences, but we opted for the state.”

The finance minister was in Washington to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and almost all his meetings focused on the economy and the impact of the recent floods on the people and the infrastructure.

But several initial questions at the conference focused on the result of Sunday’s elections that gave an unprecedented victory to PTI. Commenting on the results, Mr Dar said that the parties now in the government were aware of “the consequences” of moving the vote of no confidence but they went for it because not doing so would have disastrous consequences for Pakistan. “Allowing the previous government to continue would have been worse than the floods,” he said.

Asked if President Biden’s remarks on Pakistan’s nuclear programme helped Imran Khan’s election campaign, the finance minister reiterated the prime minister’s assurance that the country had a robust command and control system and US officials often acknowledged it too. “But when a politician who has been a PM (Mr Khan) says the nuclear programme was good under me, but not now, this is how the world would react,” he added. “You should condemn him; he is doing petty politics.”

In his opening statement, the minister said during his four-day stay in Washington he had 58 meetings with the chiefs of international financial institutions and with US, Saudi and other officials. The World Bank and Britain, he said, also hosted a roundtable on floods, where UNDP, ADB and WB officials presented a joint report.

According to this report, the floods have caused a total loss of over $32.4 billion to the country. Pakistan needs more than $16 billion for immediate relief and rehabilitation works. The meeting, the minister said, made a strong appeal to the international community to help Pakistan.

The government had already spent over Rs99bn on relief and rehabilitation works, he said, adding that Pakistan and its allies were finalising a date for the donors’ conference that would be held in France next month.

He said Pakistan would complete its current IMF programme by June 2023 and would meet all its obligations.

Reminded of an IMF official’s statement urging Pakistan to continue its fiscal and energy reforms, Mr Dar said: “We are committed to the reforms, about 5pc to 10pc of the work is pending but will soon be completed.”

On energy, he said, “We are slower than their expected but will do it too.”

During PML-N rule in 2015, he said, Pakistan had exited grey list of FATF programme and would do so again. “We have banned factions, introduced laws, and solved issues. FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG) has done its reviews, APG, satisfactory, we have a National Action Plan, and we hope to move to the whitelist again after the next review.”

About IMF’s objection to subsidies, raised at a news briefing during his stay, the minister said the “donor do not mind targeted subsidies. It’s the general subsidy that they are against. Perhaps, the IMF officials were referring to the electricity subsidy that we gave.” He said that during the UNGA Pakistan discussed this issue with the IMF chief and asked for a decision on this. “She promised to do so, has not responded yet but we are not doing anything without consulting them.

Responding to another question he said he had not come to Washington to seek price reduction. “We take such decisions at home.”

Blaming the previous government for the current economic situation, Mr Dar said: “Pakistan’s economy is a man-made disaster. Their incompetency, their misgovernance caused it. We are here to save the economy, not to do politics. May God accept our sacrifice.”