ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance chief Shaukat Tarin has said his country can end its reliance on International Monetary Fund (IMF) by generating sustainable growth of five to six percent, reported an international media outlet on Thursday after conducting an exclusive interview with him in Islamabad.
The IMF revived Pakistan’s $6 billion loan program on Wednesday after the government met its key conditions, including parliamentary backing for the central bank’s autonomy, uniform implementation of sales tax, and increase in power tariffs.
The loan was offered to the country in July 2019 under the international lending agency’s Extended Fund Facility after Pakistan accepted its condition to undertake structural reforms and allow periodic performance reviews.
Tarn announced the resumption of loan package in a Twitter post on Wednesday night, saying he was pleased that the IMF executive board had approved the sixth tranche of the program that was stalled due to difference of opinions on both sides.
“I think this program should be enough,” he told Bloomberg in an interview published on Thursday. “If we start generating 5 percent-6 percent balanced growth, which means sustainable growth, then I don’t think we need another IMF program.”
The international financial publication noted that Pakistan had sought nearly 20 IMF bailouts in about half a century, though it was now hoping to stand on its own feet “by shrinking deficits and tapping capital markets.”
“Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, who negotiated the last leg of its current IMF loan, is targeting a budget shortfall to 5 percent-5.25 percent of gross domestic product in the year starting July 1, from 6.1 percent now, and aims to spur economic growth to 6 percent from 5 percent,” it added.
Tarin also told Bloomberg that he planned to raise $1 billion through an ESG-compliant Eurobond in March after generating the same amount through Sukuk last week.
The IMF has already expressed hope that the country’s economy would continue to recover despite the COVID-19 pandemic, though it has also warned that “imbalances have widened and risks remain elevated.”
“The authorities’ recent policy efforts to strengthen economic resilience are welcomed,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh said in a statement, adding: “Timely and consistent implementation of policies and reforms remain essential to lay the ground for stronger and more sustainable growth.”
The multilateral lending agency maintained Pakistan’s growth was expected to reach four percent, though it cautioned the economy remained vulnerable to disruptions from the pandemic and geopolitical tensions.
Pakistan’s finance chief wants to end IMF reliance through ‘sustainable growth’
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Pakistan’s finance chief wants to end IMF reliance through ‘sustainable growth’
- The international lending agency revived Pakistan’s $6 billion loan program on Wednesday after getting a nod from its executive board
- Shaukat Tarin tells an international media outlet the country hopes ‘to spur economic growth to 6 percent from 5 percent’
Pakistan defense minister warns of ‘more legal action’ against ex-spy chief
- Faiz Hameed, ISI’s director-general from 2019-2021, was sentenced to 14 years by military court this week
- Defense Minister Khawaja Asif alleges Hameed planned violent priotests led by ex-PM Khan’s party in 2023
ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday announced “more legal action” will be taken against former spy chief Faiz Hameed, days after he was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a military court.
Pakistan military’s media wing announced this week that Hameed, who was the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from 2019 to 2021, has been sentenced to 14 years after being found guilty of misusing authority and government resources, violating the Official Secrets Act and causing “wrongful loss to persons.”
The former spy chief was widely seen as close to ex-prime minister Imran Khan. Hameed, who retired from the army in December 2022, is accused by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of bringing down the government of his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, in 2017.
The PML-N alleges Hameed worked with then opposition leader Khan to plot Nawaz’s ouster through a series of court cases, culminating in the Supreme Court disqualifying of him from office in 2017 for failing to disclose income and ordering a criminal investigation into his family over corruption allegations. Khan’s party and Hameed have both denied the allegations.
“A senior officer and former head of the ISI has been convicted in a trial that lasted for a long period of 15 months,” Asif told reporters in Sialkot.
“There are more problems, charges on which legal action will be taken and that won’t take long.”
Asif repeated the PML-N’s allegations, accusing Hameed of having Nawaz disqualified through the court cases. He accused the former spy chief of propelling Khan to the office of the prime minister, blaming him for having leaders and supporters of the PML-N arrested during Khan’s premiership.
Pakistan military said this week that Faiz’s alleged role in “fomenting vested political agitation and instability in cahoots with political elements” was being handled separately. Many interpreted this as the military alluding to the May 9, 2023, nationwide unrest, when angry Khan supporters took to the streets and attacked military and government installations after he was briefly detained on corruption charges.
Asif said Faiz’s “brain and planning” was behind the May 2023 unrest.
“These two personalities can not be separated,” the defense minister said, referencing Khan and Hameed.
Senior military officers are rarely investigated or convicted in Pakistan, where the security establishment plays an outsized role in politics and national governance.
Hameed’s sentencing comes just days after Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir was appointed as Pakistan’s first chief of defense forces, marking a major restructuring of the military command.
Former prime minister Khan’s PTI party has distanced itself from Hameed’s conviction, referring to it as an “internal matter of the military institution.”
