Minister airs optimism about IMF funds
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday saw a new window of hope to get stalled funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s telephonic engagement with Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the Washington-based lender, the last weekend as the government promised a ‘relief budget’ next week within the requirements of the Fund programme. “We are following the programme in earnest at this stage and strongly hope that issues with the IMF would be settled very soon as the prime minister, the Ministry of Finance and the entire government were committed to the IMF programme and its amicable completion,” said Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha. The programme has been hanging in balance since October 2022, although staff-level negotiations on the 9th quarterly review concluded on Feb 9. Talking to journalists after a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, Dr Pasha said the prime minister had spoken to the IMF managing director and both sides were of the view that the programme should be completed at the earliest. “We are not even thinking anything without the (Fund) programme”, although the finance ministry was not sitting idle with closed eyes as everybody had second plans as well, she said, adding that both the prime minister and IMF chief appreciated agreed that non-completion of the ongoing Fund programme was neither in the interest of Pakistan nor the IMF.