By Ali Imran
Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is seeking the support of major political parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), for a recently announced $3 billion bailout programme, the lender said on Friday.
The IMF’s resident representative Esther Perez Ruiz said in a statement that the meetings with political parties were to “seek assurances of their support for the key objectives and policies under a new IMF-supported program ahead of the approaching national elections.” The new bailout program, a nine-month stand-by arrangement, is going to be taken up by the lender’s board on July 12.
Hammad Azhar confirms meeting
Senior PTI leader and former finance minister Hammad Azhar confirmed that party’s economic team has been approached by the IMF to solicit its support for the loan agreement and its broad objectives.
“An IMF team will call on party Chairman Imran Khan at Zaman Park this afternoon,” he tweeted.
Azhar said that both PTI’s economic team and the IMF team will join, in person and virtually, to take part in the discussions.
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have recently struck a staff-level agreement for the provision of $3 billion for nine months as a bailout package under a stand-by arrangement (SBA). The agreement replaced the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) which Pakistan entered in 2019 and which was expired on June 30.
The SBA is a bail-out package for offering emergency relief to strengthen Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.
