Sir: No Finance Minister in the history of Pakistan has given as many statements about the exchange rate as have been given by Ishaq Dar in the last nine months. Why would the finance minister who is supposed to classify information on the national economy forecast publicly the movement of the exchange rate? No government official must be allowed to comment on the expected movement of the exchange rate because this can destabilize the market. Dar’s recent statement that the dollar will stay around Rs 98 created panic in the exchange market on Friday. As a result of this unnecessary statement the importers rushed to buy dollars whereas the exporters and overseas Pakistani workers withheld their remittances. Consequently the dollar went up by one percent in one day in the inter-bank market. It is highly unlikely that any finance minister in the world foretells openly the movement in the exchange rate. In Pakistan, like many other abnormal things, this too had been allowed to pass, that too in the presence of an otherwise hyperbolic media. Mr Ishaq Dar should stop intervening in market fundamentals to allow them to turn their own way. Ejaz Ahmad Magoon Lahore