Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Shehzad on Friday said the country’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme was “completely on track”, noting a smooth review process despite reports that India had raised concerns with the lenders over Pakistan’s loans and sought a review.
Relations between the two neighbouring countries turned hostile following an April 22 attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, marking one of the deadliest assaults in the region since 2000. India implied cross-border links without evidence, while Pakistan rejected the accusation and called for a neutral probe.
In the aftermath of the attack, India suspended the Indus Water Treaty, and the two countries closed their airspace to each other’s airlines.
Pakistan secured a $7 billion bailout programme from the IMF last year and was granted a new $1.3bn climate resilience loan in March.
The IMF Executive Board will meet on May 9 to discuss the country’s staff-level agreement for a new arrangement, along with the first review of Pakistan’s ongoing bailout programme, the global lender said earlier this week.
Speaking to Dawn.com today, Shehzad said that the programme was “completely on track” and the review was “done well”.
He said that they conducted “very productive meetings” with the IMF, World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other International Financial Institutions.
“While in the spring meetings in DC, we did about 70 meetings within (a) span of six days,” he said, adding that interest was very high for investing and supporting Pakistan as the economy turned around and raters gave a positive outlook while upgrading the ratings as well.
Separately, India raised concerns with the IMF on its loans to Pakistan, asking for a review, a government source told Reuters without elaborating.
The IMF and India’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
The programme is critical to the $350bn economy and Pakistan said it has stabilised under the bailout that helped it stave off a default threat.
The soaring tensions between the two countries have drawn global attention and calls for cooling tempers.
US Vice President JD Vance said yesterday that Washington hoped Pakistan would cooperate with India to hunt down the assailants.
“And we hope, frankly, that Pakistan, to the extent that they’re responsible, cooperates with India to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with,” Vance had said.
