BEIJING: China will provide Pakistan with economic aid but more talks will take place to fix the details, a senior Chinese diplomat said, after new Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday.
Pakistan’s foreign reserves have plunged 42 percent since the start of the year and now stand at about $8 billion, or less than two months of import cover.
Last month, Pakistan received a $6 billion rescue package from Saudi Arabia, but officials say it is not enough and the country still plans to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert a balance of payments crisis.
It would be Pakistan’s 13th rescue package from the multilateral lender since the late 1980s.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People following Khan’s talks with Li, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said his country would help.
“During the visit the two sides have made it clear in principle that the Chinese government will provide necessary support and assistance to Pakistan in tiding over the current economic difficulties,” Kong said.
“As for specific measures to be taken, the relevant authorities of the two sides will have detailed discussions,” he added, without giving details.
Khan told Chinese President Xi Jinping the previous day that he had inherited “a very difficult economic situation” at home.
Though China is Pakistan’s closest ally, Khan’s newly elected government has sought to re-think the two countries’ signature project, the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which Beijing touts as the flagship infrastructure program in its vast Belt and Road Initiative.
Pakistan has looked to amend CPEC to put greater emphasis on projects that focus on social development, rather than purely on infrastructure.
Kong said there would be no change in the number of projects under CPEC.
“There is no change at all. If there were, it would only be to increase, not decrease” the number of projects, he added.
However the scope of the project would increase and will tilt in favor of people’s livelihoods, Kong said, also without elaborating.
After visiting Beijing, Khan is set to be a key note speaker at a major import fair in Shanghai, an event that China hopes will show the world the country welcomes foreign companies and their products.
China says more talks needed on economic aid for Pakistan
China says more talks needed on economic aid for Pakistan
- It would be Pakistan’s 13th rescue package from the multilateral lender since the late 1980s
- Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said there would be no change in the number of projects under CPEC
Ex-PM Imran Khan lawyers move Pakistan court for his release on medical grounds
- Khan was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a case involving illegal retention of state gifts he received as PM
- The development comes as an opposition protest seeking Khan’s transfer to a private hospital enters the second day
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan have moved a Pakistani high court to suspend his 17-year prison term in a graft case and release the ex-premier on grounds of his deteriorating health, Khan’s party said on Saturday.
The development follows a rare prison visit earlier this week by Barrister Salman Safdar, appointed as amicus curiae by the Supreme Court, to assess Khan’s health and living conditions at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. In his report, Safdar stated the ex-premier had suffered a significant loss of sight in his right eye.
The report sparked a protest by an alliance of opposition parties, the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), which also includes members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, at Parliament House in Islamabad, with the protesters demanding Khan’s transfer from Adiala Jail to Al-Shifa Hospital for treatment.
The petition filed by Khan’s lawyers in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeks suspension of a Dec. 20, 2025 judgment by a special court involving illegal retention of state gifts, arguing that “continued incarceration of the Petitioner during pendency of the Appeal would result in grave miscarriage of justice.”
“The filing argues that the judgment is under substantive legal challenge and requests that the appellate court suspend the sentence until the appeal is decided, a remedy available under Pakistani law when serious questions are raised about the conviction,” Khan’s PTI party said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the petition filed by Barrister Safdar, a specialist at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) diagnosed “severe damage to the Petitioner’s right eye caused by a blood clot, leaving him with only fifteen percent (15 percent) vision in the affected eye.”
“[This] medical complication is of such gravity and seriousness that the same cannot be treated inside the jail premises,” the petition read.
The development came as the opposition sit-in at parliament entered its second day on Saturday. Local media reported the Khan supporters had also blocked the Hazara motorway in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, ruled by his PTI party.
“This sit-in will continue until Imran Khan is transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital,” the opposition alliance said on X.
Khan, 73, has been in custody since August 2023. This petition seeks to suspend his December conviction on charges of “criminal breach of trust” and corruption related to a jewelry set. He was sentenced to 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The petition represents the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle for the former cricket star-turned-politician. Since his removal from office in 2022, Khan has faced a barrage of cases.
His legal team argues the “present prosecution constitutes yet another continuation of this pattern” of “unprecedented political victimization.” The government says the courts are free to decide on legal matters.
On Friday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said there would be no negligence with regard to Khan’s treatment.
“Medical report will be compiled again, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is himself monitoring this case,” he said.
“Wherever it will be requested, Imran Khan’s eye will be examined at.”
