Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters Monday night that the handling of the discovery of classified documents by President Joe Biden’s lawyers that were taken from the White House six years ago is a display of a “two-tier” system of justice.
On Monday, Fox News confirmed that a batch of records from Biden’s time as vice president, including a “small number of documents with classified markings,” were discovered at the Penn Biden Center by the president’s personal attorneys on Nov. 2, according to Richard Saubel, special counsel to the White House.
The attorneys found the documents in a locked closet while preparing to vacate office space at the center, which the president used from mid-2017 until he began the 2020 campaign.
“Is the White House going to be raided tonight?” Comer asked. “Are they going to raid the Biden center? I don’t know.”
“This is further concern that there’s a two-tier justice system within the DOJ with how they treat Republicans vs. Democrats … certainly how they treat the former president vs. the current president,” Comer added.
Comer said that after the Mar-a-Lago raid, according to the research his office conducted, they found that “every president had accidentally packed documents that may or may not be considered classified.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., says the committee will investigate the Biden classified documents. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Ellen DeGeneres slammed for awkward Taylor Swift interview by model Emily Ratajkowski: ‘So f—ed up’
Former Sony Music executive Seth Schachner joins ‘Fox News @ Night’ to examine the fallout from the Taylor Swift-Ticketmaster fiasco.
Dar expects Saudi Arabia, China to beef up forex reserves by Jan-end
• Terms PTI’s white paper on economy ‘misleading, devoid of context’
• Says inflation, other indicators to improve by end-June
• Flood levy planned for affluent, gains tax on banks’ forex earnings
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia and China were set to beef up Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves much before the close of this month, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday and announced that the government would be shortly imposing flood levy on the affluent and a significant gain tax on banks’ foreign exchange earnings to ramp up revenue.
“Our foreign exchange reserves by end-June would be much better than you can think,” Mr Dar said while speaking at a joint news conference with five other PML-N ministers.
He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme would be completed at all costs, China and Saudi Arabi would enhance their support, government-to-government (G2G) disinvestments would be completed, and the current account deficit would be about $3 billion less than earlier projections.
The presser had been called in response to a “white paper” launched a day earlier by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), suggesting that Pakistan was on the verge of anarchy because of hyperinflation and unemployment.
Mr Dar repeatedly snubbed questions about the possibility of the country defaulting on its foreign debt, insisting that such speculation was being pushed by the PTI, whose white paper was “a pack of lies” and was allegedly based on selective data, misleading numbers, factually incorrect and devoid of economic context.
The minister disagreed that a threshold committed with the IMF under the eighth quarterly review for contingency budgetary measures had been crossed, as revenue collection during the first five months (July to November) of this fiscal year was above target.
However, he hastened to add that a heavy revenue ticket of Rs270-290bn super tax pitched for December could not yield results because of stay orders, resulting in a revenue shortfall in December.
“We are in any case planning to beef up revenues and considering a flood levy and a substantial recovery on account of unprecedented foreign exchange windfalls” earned by the banking sector, but there would be no measure that adds up to the burden on common people already suffering a lot of hardship, he said.
He noted that petroleum prices had not gone up for over three months and instead dropped by Rs19-20 per litre for petrol and diesel and by Rs29-30 for kerosene and light diesel.
Responding to a question, the finance minister said many countries had imposed taxes on foreign exchange earnings.
He said various agencies were already in action to combat the smuggling of foreign exchange and other commodities like wheat and fertiliser.
The minister recalled that during the prime minister’s visits in September, China and Saudi Arabia had agreed to increase their support to Pakistan, and the Saudi finance minister later confirmed this to international news agencies.
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He said the process got delayed, but Saudi Arabia would increase its support much earlier than the end of this month, while the Chinese loan rollover was also being processed. He said the privatisation transactions, particularly the sale of LNG plants and others on a G2G basis, were also progressing and would be completed within six months.
Responding to a question, the minister said the IMF delay was because of the credibility gap caused by “reckless decisions” of the PTI government on the eve of the no-confidence vote.
Resultantly, the Fund raised questions not only about the quarter ending December instead of the original end-October performance but also sought details about the subsequent 11th and 12th reviews (until June), particularly on how Pakistan would finance $16.3bn flood-related requirements.
“We have provided these things” and would be meeting the IMF on the occasion of a donors’ conference in Geneva on Jan 9, Mr Dar said.
Saudi Arabia mulls increasing deposit in SBP to $5bn
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has directed the Saudi Development Fund (SDF) to study increasing the deposit amount in the State of Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to $5 billion, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Tuesday.
“His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, has directed to study augmenting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s investments in the sisterly Islamic Republic of Pakistan which have previously been announced on August 25, 2022, to reach $10 billion,” it said.
“The crown prince also directed the Saudi Development Fund to study increasing the amount of the deposit provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in favour of the Central Bank of Pakistan which have previously been extended on December 2, 2022 to hit a $5 billion ceiling,” the report said.
The move, SPA stated, confirmed Saudi Arabia’s position on supporting the economy of Pakistan and its “sisterly people”.
The development was reached within the framework of the existing communication between Prince Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, it added.
Today’s announcement comes a day after Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir — who was on a week-long official visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE — held a meeting with Prince Salman in Madina and discussed ways to improve bilateral ties between the two countries.
In 2021, the SBP had signed an agreement with the SFD to receive $3bn, which would be placed in the central bank’s account with an aim to improve its foreign exchange reserves.
Subsequently, in September last year, the SFD had confirmed the rollover of a $3bn deposit for one more year. The deposit was set to mature on Dec 5, however, on Dec 2 Saudi Arabia had extended its term.
In the last week of October 2021, Saudi Arabia had agreed to revive its financial support to Pakistan, including about $3bn in safe deposits and $1.2bn worth of oil supplies on deferred payments.
The agreement was reached during the visit of former prime minister Imran Khan to the kingdom the same month.
The Saudi king had in August last year directed his government to invest $1bn in Pakistan “in confirmation of the kingdom’s support of the Pakistani economy” and its people.
The directive from King Salman bin Abdulaziz had come a day after the Qatari government said it would invest $3bn in Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE had earlier indicated to provide $1bn each in oil purchase financing.
Later in October, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud would soon be visiting Pakistan during which he would announce a $10bn investment for establishing an oil refinery in the country. However, the planned visit was later postponed for unexplained reasons.
Cash crunch
The country is currently in the midst of a severe cash crunch, with foreign exchange reserves in the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) depleting to an eight-year low of $5.576 billion during the week ended on Dec 30, 2022.
This decline left no space for the government to pay back its foreign debts without borrowing more from friendly countries.
During the week the SBP foreign exchange reserves saw an outflow of $245 million for external debt repayments.
Foreign debt servicing is the most troubling question for the PMLN-led coalition government facing a serious threat of default. Several attempts to restart talks with the IMF for the release of the next tranche have so far remained unfruitful.
The falling reserves have already deeply devalued the local currency against the US dollar and other major currencies. The SBP’s foreign exchange reserves dipped $11bn to $5.6bn from $16.6bn in January 2022.
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