bdnews24.com :
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has brushed aside Pakistan’s claim of Bangladesh’s ‘due before 1971’ as ‘stupid and idiotic’.
“There is no need to comment on the matter. If we do, it will mean giving further importance to a stupid, idiotic move which is audacious also,” Muhith said in reply to media queries at his office on Thursday.
A report published on Pakistani daily Express Tribune on Tuesday said the country was about to ask Bangladesh to repay the money it claimed was due before Bangladesh earned independence in 1971.
The current value of the outstanding amount is 9.21 billion Pakistani Rupees after asset valuation, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Wednesday said Pakistan’s ‘absurd’ claim was a strategy to evade the payment of money it owes Bangladesh.
On being asked whether Bangladesh will ask Pakistan to repay the money, Muhith on Thursday said, “We always raise our demand whenever we speak to them. It is an enormous claim. We have properly documented four alternative claims. But they don’t have any document, nothing.” “It’s just idiotic,” he added.
The finance minister, however, could not specify the amount Pakistan owes Bangladesh.
“It can be $5 billion. But we offered them some relief. We told them: ‘We know you are a poor country, so you don’t have the ability to pay the entire amount; we shall be generous; pay in installments, etcetera.’,” he said.
“We even said this when we were in a poor shape. But now they are nothing. Their per capita income is high, but it will be below us very soon. There is no logic in comparing ourselves to them.”
“We are well-off without them,” he added.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has brushed aside Pakistan’s claim of Bangladesh’s ‘due before 1971’ as ‘stupid and idiotic’.
“There is no need to comment on the matter. If we do, it will mean giving further importance to a stupid, idiotic move which is audacious also,” Muhith said in reply to media queries at his office on Thursday.
A report published on Pakistani daily Express Tribune on Tuesday said the country was about to ask Bangladesh to repay the money it claimed was due before Bangladesh earned independence in 1971.
The current value of the outstanding amount is 9.21 billion Pakistani Rupees after asset valuation, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Wednesday said Pakistan’s ‘absurd’ claim was a strategy to evade the payment of money it owes Bangladesh.
On being asked whether Bangladesh will ask Pakistan to repay the money, Muhith on Thursday said, “We always raise our demand whenever we speak to them. It is an enormous claim. We have properly documented four alternative claims. But they don’t have any document, nothing.” “It’s just idiotic,” he added.
The finance minister, however, could not specify the amount Pakistan owes Bangladesh.
“It can be $5 billion. But we offered them some relief. We told them: ‘We know you are a poor country, so you don’t have the ability to pay the entire amount; we shall be generous; pay in installments, etcetera.’,” he said.
“We even said this when we were in a poor shape. But now they are nothing. Their per capita income is high, but it will be below us very soon. There is no logic in comparing ourselves to them.”
“We are well-off without them,” he added.
