US help sought for IMF programme revival

Pakistan on Wednesday sought the US support in reviving the IMF programme to facilitate soft landing of its economy marred by exogenous challenges like floods and adverse global economic conditions. During a meeting on Wednesday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar asked a visiting US delegation to help convince the Washington-based multilateral lender to be lenient towards Pakistan in restoring the programme while understanding the challenges created by floods and other external factors. The delegation was led by Robert Kaproth, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Treasury. Mr Dar, according to informed sources, told the visitors that Pakistan would honour all its international commitments and was in the process of taking “very tough decisions”, including increasing the prices of natural gas and electricity and other measures “even beyond the call of IMF”, to put the country on path to stability through reforms.