ISLAMABAD: Ten leading global lenders have expressed interest in Pakistani eurobonds as the government plans to raise about $1 billion within the next two months to shore up foreign exchange reserves, a top finance ministry official said on Wednesday.
A eurobond, or external bond, is a fixed-income debt instrument denominated in a currency not native to the country where it is issued. About $1.5 billion worth of eurobonds were part of Pakistan’s financing plan in the past fiscal year but were delayed due to adverse market conditions.
The new bonds are expected to be issued in December or January, Kamran Afzal, the ministry’s special secretary, told reporters on Wednesday.
“10 leading banks have submitted their financial and technical bids to structure the bond issue,” Afzal was quoted by local media as saying.
Bank of America, Bank of China, and several other lenders from Europe and the Gulf region are reportedly among the lenders interested.
“Their bids will be evaluated next week and it is expected that two consortiums will be hired to put in place structures for floating the Eurobond and the Sukuk bond,” the Express Tribune newspaper said.
Afzal said the government would first float the Eurobond and then the Islamic bond also, depending on the advice of financial advisers. This will be the first capital market transaction by the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and will help Pakistan meet its external debt obligations such as the repayment of major loans, including $3 billion to Saudi Arabia.
The Group of 20 nations (G20), representing the world’s biggest economies, last month suspended debt payments of Pakistan and dozens of other developing countries to help support their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. G20 has agreed to extend debt suspension for these countries until June 2021.
Ten top global banks vie for Pakistan’s $1 billion eurobonds
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Ten top global banks vie for Pakistan’s $1 billion eurobonds
- Bank of America, Bank of China, and other lenders from Europe and the Gulf are reportedly among the bidders
- The money will help Pakistan meet its external debt obligations such as the repayment of major loans
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
