PPP agrees to Ishaq Dar's role as finance minister: sources

• "We have never objected to any individual," a senior PPP leader says.
• It is PML-N's prerogative to select its cabinet members, he adds.
• Bilawal Bhutto has repeatedly criticised Dar for role as finance czar.

With Prime Minister-elect Shehbaz Sharif set to take oath as the country's premier and expectation that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would soon announce its cabinet, sources say that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has agreed to the appointment of Senator Ishaq Dar as the country's finance minister, The News reported on Monday.

The development comes in the backdrop of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto's tirade, during the party's election campaign in the run-up to the February 8 polls, wherein he had time and again criticised Dar for mismanaging the economy during the PML-N-led Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government.

In January, while speaking on Geo News' programme "Naya Pakistan", Bilawal said that his party would see "anyone but Dar" taking charge as the country's finance czar in light of the prevailing economic crises.

Responding to the PPP chairman's remarks, the PML-N stalwart refrained from reacting to his comments and said: "He [Bilawal] is like my child. I don't want to comment [on what he said]."

"This is the same Bilawal who on the floor [of the parliament] a few months back used to say that for him I'm Dar uncle," he added.

However, as per a senior PPP leader, the PML-N is in the driving seat and it is their prerogative to whom it selects for the cabinet from the party.

"We have never objected to any individual," the PPP leader said, adding that the party had never raised any objections to persons but to their policies.

"Though PPP did have reservations about some of his economic policies in the 16-month-long coalition government, these were expressed whenever needed," he added.

PPP insiders say that Dar was heading the team that negotiated with the Bilawal-led party on the formation of government and he and the party leaders had always maintained good political relations.