MoF rejects report of budget power-shift narrative

May 14, 2026 (MLN): The Ministry of Finance has strongly rejected a news report suggesting that Prime Minister had handed over control of the budget-making process to Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, calling the story "misleading and speculative."

The rejection came in response to a report published by The Express Tribune titled "PM hands budget-making to Dar," which the Ministry said misrepresented the constitution of a high-level review committee by the Prime Minister as a "handover" of budgetary authority or a "sidelining" of the finance minister.

"This interpretation is factually incorrect and does not reflect the actual mandate or functioning of the committee," the Ministry said in a statement, according to a post on it’s X account.

According to the Ministry, the committee was established solely to review and analyze specific tax policy proposals prepared by the Tax Policy Office ahead of the upcoming federal budget, a routine consultative exercise that is standard practice in inter-ministerial governance.

The Ministry emphasized that the finance minister is himself a member of the committee and continues to lead Pakistan's engagement with the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions on all budgetary and macroeconomic matters.

"At no stage has the budget-making process been shifted away from the Ministry of Finance or the Finance Division," the statement read, adding that macroeconomic framework, fiscal strategy, expenditure planning and overall budget coordination remain firmly within the Ministry's mandate.

It was also clarified that a separate committee on enforcement measures was formed only to refine revenue administration proposals in consultation with relevant stakeholders describing such mechanisms as "a normal feature of governance and fiscal management."

The Ministry accused the publication of framing its report in a manner designed to suggest internal government divisions where none exist, and called on media organizations to "report institutional processes with accuracy, context and due professional responsibility."

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