IMF package: Government is not bound to take parliament into confidence: official

The government is not required to take parliament into confidence on details of bailout package agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under rules and procedures of the National Assembly. A senior official of the National Assembly Secretariat told Business Recorder, "There is no such requirement for the government under ''Rules and Procedures of the National Assembly."
He further stated that no previous government has brought the deal signed with the IMF to parliament. The $6.7 billion Stand-by Arrangement signed by the PPP-led coalition government in 2008 and $6.64 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) signed by Pakistan Muslim League (N) government in September 2013 were not taken to Parliament.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) recently asked the government to take parliament into confidence on terms and conditions and quantum of the IMF bailout package being negotiated with the IMF. Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation (FRDL) Act 2005 stipulates that federal government shall, in each year, ensure to be laid before the National Assembly, the statements of economic, fiscal and debt policy, namely''; (a) the medium term budgetary statement; (b) the fiscal policy statement; and (c) the debt policy statement.
The law requires limiting the federal fiscal deficit excluding foreign grants to four percent of gross domestic product during the three years beginning from the financial year 2017-18, and maintaining it at a maximum of three and a half percent of the gross domestic product thereafter as well as ensuring that within a period of two fiscal years, beginning from the financial year 2016-17, that the total public debt to be reduced to sixty percent of the estimated gross domestic product. State Minister for Revenue while taking to the media recently accused the PPP of taking seven bailout packages from the IMF but never took parliament on board.