IMF to seek assurance from Imran on bailout package

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is seeking the support of Pakistan’s major political parties, including Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), for a recently-announced $3 billion bailout programme, the lender said on Friday, media reports said. 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”, Geo News reported. The official added that they will also meet Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). However, there is no confirmation from them, the report said. Pakistan secured a badly-needed $3 billion stand-by arrangement (SBA) from the IMF on Friday, giving the South Asian economy a much-awaited respite as it teeters on the brink of default. The staff-level agreement on the SBA is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board which is scheduled to meet on July 12. The previous Extended Fund Facility expired on June 30, with the 9th, 10th, and 11th reviews pending. Senior PTI leader and former Finance Minister Hammad Azhar took to Twitter, saying the party’s economic team has been approached by the IMF to solicit its support for the loan agreement and its broad objectives. Azhar said that both PTI’s economic team and the IMF team will join, in person and virtually, to take part in the discussions, Geo News reported.