It is time the Fund did it

At the Apex Committee meeting over terrorism in Peshawar on Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif complained that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visiting the country for discussion to resume its bailout package was giving a ‘very tough time’ to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his team. It is time the Fund did it. Period. If Pakistan wants to break up with the lender of last resort, it must dive deeper into muddy fiscal waters to fix the economy to deal with what the prime minister described as ‘unimaginable economic challenges’ facing the country. With the country’s foreign exchange reserves shrunk to a ‘critically low’ level of $3.09 billion, enough to cover only 18 days of suppressed imports, the government is left with no other option but to accept the IMF diktat. The resumption of the programme is crucial to staving off a sovereign default as it will not only ensure the disbursement of $3bn from the Fund through June but also unlock inflows from other multilateral and bilateral creditors. But the resumption of the programme can do only so much: provide some fuel to the country to stay afloat for a few more months.