A day after cancelling his US visit that gave rise to immense speculation, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar looked to pacify concerns, and said that the staff-level agreement between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was taking time solely because of delay in confirmation of funding from a friendly country. The financing confirmation would bridge Pakistan's external account gap and meet the last condition of the IMF.
In a lengthy press conference, he stated Pakistan has completed all prior actions laid down by the IMF and even introduced a mini-budget. Even after the confirmation by friendly nations, the process of staff level agreement will take 2 weeks to complete, he added.
“In the past two weeks, one friendly country gave the confirmation of its commitment to help Pakistan with $2 billion. We are now only awaiting the confirmation of $1 billion commitment from another friendly country."
Speaking about the fuel subsidy for low-income consumers recently announced by the government, the finance minister said discussions have been held with the IMF and “Pakistan has given satisfactory responses to all the queries of the global lender so far”.
“Fuel subsidy will not be funded from budget rather it will be cross funded from high-income consumers,” he said.
Addressing rumours over his cancelled trip to Washington, Dar underlined that he will attend important meetings of the two multilateral lenders virtually from Islamabad.
“I will skip a few meetings that will be attended by Pakistan’s team in Washington,” he stressed.
“A negative twist is being given to cancellation of my trip which is fake news. In late 90s when economic sanctions were imposed on Pakistan and IMF paused its bailout, the country still participated in its annual meetings.
"The IMF cannot stop me from attending the spring meetings.
“We are a member country of the IMF and World Bank and not a beggar,” Dar said.
Talking about the reasons behind cancellation of his trip, he stated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked him not to leave Pakistan amid a developing constitutional crisis in the midst of an economic crisis.
Despite worse liquidity crunch, Pakistan has not missed or delayed any local or international sovereign payment, he said.
“The country repaid $11 billion in the past few months in sovereign payments,” he said and warned people not to paint a negative picture of Pakistan.
Punjab Elections
The finance minister said on multiple occasions in the history of Pakistan, elections were not held within 90 days of dissolution of assembly. He stated that during earthquakes, floods and assassination of Benazir Bhutto, elections were held after 90 days.
“Even this time around, Punjab elections will take place after 90 days as per the date decided by Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he said.
He noted that the government was given the responsibility to arrange fund for elections by April 10 while but the Ministry of Defence has refused to provide security for elections.