Shehbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, thanked an unnamed “friendly nation” on Friday for giving Pakistan financial help before the end of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume a lifeline needed to keep from going bankrupt.
Even though most people believed that the assistance wouldn’t arrive until the IMF agreement was finalized, the prime minister claimed at an apex committee meeting in Islamabad that it had been provided immediately. He continued by saying that such contributions should not be forgotten and that the ally had made numerous other sincere contributions in the past.
Even though the prime minister didn’t say which country helped or how much, he did say that the deal with the IMF would be finalized in a week to ten days.
Pakistan has been in talks with an IMF delegation in Islamabad for ten days but could not reach an agreement. The country’s reserves have depleted to around $3 billion, which experts believe is only enough for 16 to 17 days of imports.
The agreement with the IMF on the completion of the ninth review of a $7bn loan program would not only lead to a disbursement of $1.2bn but also unlock inflows from friendly countries.
Meanwhile, President Arif Alvi signed off on the Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2023, bringing into effect tax measures that will raise an additional Rs170bn in the next four and a half months to meet the last prior actions agreed upon with the IMF.
The IMF has given a deadline of March 1 for the implementation of all these measures. However, the bulk of tax measures worth Rs115bn was already implemented from Feb 14 through statutory regulatory orders.
With the implementation of all major prior actions, Pakistan is eyeing a staff-level agreement with the IMF within a fortnight, paving the way for much-awaited credit flows from other bilateral and multilateral lenders.
During the apex committee meeting, the prime minister also expressed concern over the security situation in the country, noting that the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) had become a “dormant institution.” Shehbaz Sharif went into more detail about how the National Action Plan was made and why everyone needs to work together to get rid of terrorism.
