Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has refuted reports about the suspension of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, saying that the deal is ‘on track’.
Earlier, a media report had claimed that the IMF is seeking the review of laws relating to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) while the government is unwilling to cooperate in this regard.
Another report had claimed that the IMF has asked Pakistan to set up an anti-corruption task force to review all the laws against corruption.
In a clarification via a tweet today, the finance minister termed the reports as factually incorrect and said: “I have been reading with some amusement all the tweets and stories about [the] IMF programme being postponed or delayed due to some anti-corruption law. There is no truth to it. The IMF programme is on track.”
The IMF had approved a $6 billion loan in June 2019 to support Pakistan’s economic plan to return sustainable growth to the country’s economy and improve the standards of living.
On June 28, the finance minister had announced that Pakistan has received the Memorandum of Economic and Fiscal Policies (MEFP) from the IMF for the combined seventh and eighth reviews.
The MEFP will form the basis for the staff-level agreement that now Pakistani authorities will try to achieve at the earliest.
