KARACHI: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission are engaged in information sharing about the country’s financial position as the country is expected to approach IMF as a last resort, officials say.
“The visiting delegation of the IMF is taking stock of the economic and financial conditions of the country as per a routine measure. The government is apprising the delegation about its priorities and future economic plans for securing external financing,” Senator Muhammad Ayub told Arab News.
The IMF staff mission, led by senior economist Herald Finger, arrived in Pakistan on Sept. 27 and is expected to return on Oct. 4.
The delegation has so far met with the country’s top authorities, including Finance Minister Asad Umar and officials of the Ministry of Commerce.
The visiting mission is assessing the country’s economic situation in broader terms including the debt stock of the energy sector, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and privatization of the country’s loss- making entities in the public sector. “The government is sharing its plans of securing financing from other sources including friendly countries,” Ayub said.
“The government is also sharing details about steps being taken to reduce the fiscal and budget deficits. The government is not negotiating any loan program,” he added.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Asad Umar, in an interview with Arab News, categorically dispelled the impression that the country was in any fiscal emergency to rush for the IMF program. “We are in discussions with them, but this is not to negotiate for a loan. Our purpose is to do our homework, in case we want to approach them at some stage,” Umar told Arab News.
About the steps to reduce the balance of payment deficit, the finance minister said that the government is working to eliminate the root cause of the deficit.
As the government remains indecisive about approaching the international lender, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the country had no choice: “Expectations are that the new government has no choice but to turn to the IMF for a large loan, which would require adopting austerity measures that are likely to affect growth adversely. Over the medium term, much will depend on whether large infrastructure projects will support a stronger export push.”
The government’s advisers stressed the need to take a clear stand about the IMF. “The government must clearly decide yes or no so that the uncertainty should end,” Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, a member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC), told Arab News.
Discussions with the IMF delegation remain pivatol to the country’s privatization program, which remained at a standstill during the tenure of the outgoing government. The current Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is particularly focusing on the state of public sector institutions, which are running at losses and are a huge burden on the national exchequer.
“We are focusing on improving the health of the country’s loss-making entities before embarking on the privatization program because we expect that the government will not be in position to secure the right price for the sick entities,” said Ayub, who is also a member of the Senate’s committee on industries and production.
“The government seems serious about carrying on the privatization of the country’s sick industrial units,” Mir Muhammad Yousaf Badini, chairman of the senate’s committee on privatization, told Arab News. “The government will brief about its plans on Oct. 3 following meetings with the IMF delegation,” he said.
Pakistan has so far completed 172 transactions and privatization proceeds raised through these transactions stand at 648.6 billion Pakistani rupees. About 69 entities are available for privatization including Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), gas and a number of electricity distribution companies, according to the Privatization Commission of Pakistan.
IMF staff mission in Pakistan takes stock of financial situation
IMF staff mission in Pakistan takes stock of financial situation
- Pakistan is not negotiating a loan program with the IMF team; approaching IMF is the last resort, officials say
- The IMF staff mission, led by senior economist Herald Finger, arrived in Pakistan on Sept. 27 and is expected to return on Oct. 4
‘Look ahead or look up?’: Pakistan’s police face new challenge as militants take to drone warfare
- Officials say militants are using weapons and equipment left behind after allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan
- Police in northwest Pakistan say electronic jammers have helped repel more than 300 drone attacks since mid-2025
BANNU, Pakistan: On a quiet morning last July, Constable Hazrat Ali had just finished his prayers at the Miryan police station in Pakistan’s volatile northwest when the shouting began.
His colleagues in Bannu district spotted a small speck in the sky. Before Ali could take cover, an explosion tore through the compound behind him. It was not a mortar or a suicide vest, but an improvised explosive dropped from a drone.
“Now should we look ahead or look up [to sky]?” said Ali, who was wounded again in a second drone strike during an operation against militants last month. He still carries shrapnel scars on his back, hand and foot, physical reminders of how the battlefield has shifted upward.
For police in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the fight against militancy has become a three-dimensional conflict. Pakistani officials say armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are increasingly deploying commercial drones modified to drop explosives, alongside other weapons they say were acquired after the US military withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.
Security analysts say the trend mirrors a wider global pattern, where low-cost, commercially available drones are being repurposed by non-state actors from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, challenging traditional policing and counterinsurgency tactics.
The escalation comes as militant violence has surged across Pakistan. Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) reported a 73 percent rise in combat-related deaths in 2025, with fatalities climbing to 3,387 from 1,950 a year earlier. Militants have increasingly shifted operations from northern tribal belts to southern KP districts such as Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.
“Bannu is an important town of southern KP, and we are feeling the heat,” said Sajjad Khan, the region’s police chief. “There has been an enormous increase in the number of incidents of terrorism… It is a mix of local militants and Afghan militants.”
In 2025 alone, Bannu police recorded 134 attacks on stations, checkpoints and personnel. At least 27 police officers were killed, while authorities say 53 militants died in the clashes. Many assaults involved coordinated, multi-pronged attacks using heavy weapons.
Drones have also added a new layer of danger. What began as reconnaissance tools have been weaponized with improvised devices that rely on gravity rather than guidance systems.
“Earlier, they used to drop [explosives] in bottles. After that, they started cutting pipes for this purpose,” said Jamshed Khan, head of the regional bomb disposal unit. “Now we have encountered a new type: a pistol hand grenade.”
When dropped from above, he explained, a metal pin ignites the charge on impact.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Raza Khan, who narrowly survived a drone strike during construction at a checkpoint, described devices packed with nails, bullets and metal fragments.
“They attach a shuttlecock-like piece on top. When they drop it from a height, its direction remains straight toward the ground,” he said.
TARGETING CIVILIANS
Officials say militants’ rapid adoption of drone technology has been fueled by access to equipment on informal markets, while police procurement remains slower.
“It is easy for militants to get such things,” Sajjad Khan said. “And for us, I mean, we have to go through certain process and procedures as per rules.”
That imbalance began to shift in mid-2025, when authorities deployed electronic anti-drone systems in the region. Before that, officers relied on snipers or improvised nets strung over police compounds.
“Initially, when we did not have that anti-drone system, their strikes were effective,” the police chief said, adding that more than 300 attempted drone attacks have since been repelled or electronically disrupted. “That was a decisive moment.”
Police say militants have also targeted civilians, killing nine people in drone attacks this year, often in communities accused of cooperating with authorities. Several police stations suffered structural damage.
Bannu’s location as a gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan has made it a security flashpoint since colonial times. But officials say the aerial dimension of the conflict has placed unprecedented strain on local forces.
For constables like Hazrat Ali, new technology offers some protection, but resolve remains central.
“Nowadays, they have ammunition and all kinds of the most modern weapons. They also have large drones,” he said. “When we fight them, we fight with our courage and determination.”
