ISLAMABAD: Finance minister Shaukat Tarin informed Pakistan’s Senate on Friday the country would start using from next month a $1.2 billion Saudi facility allowing Islamabad to defer payments for oil imports.
A $4.2 billion Saudi support package, which included a $1.2 billion oil loan facility, was agreed during Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Riyadh in October last year. In December, Pakistan received the $3 billion loan but the oil facility is yet to be put into use.
The South Asian nation is facing a wide range of economic challenges, with high inflation, sliding forex reserves, a widening current account deficit and a depreciating currency.
“We went to Saudi Arabia and told [its government] that oil prices are rising so give us [oil] on deferred payments,” the finance minister said. “We have not used the deferred payment facility until now. We will use it from next month.”
Tarin said Pakistan had been using its own reserves at the moment.
Saudi Ambassador to Islamabad Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki met Pakistan’s federal minister for economic affairs, Omar Ayub Khan, last week to discuss the facility. The two had agreed to operationalize the oil facility at the “earliest.”
The financing agreement for the oil facility was signed last November between the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and the Pakistani Economic Affairs Division.
“As per Financing Agreement, the SFD will extend the financing facility up to $100 million per month for one-year for purchase of petroleum products on deferred payment basis,” a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs had read.
Pakistan to start using Saudi oil facility next month — finance minister
https://arab.news/65d58
Pakistan to start using Saudi oil facility next month — finance minister
- $4.2 billion Saudi package, including $1.2 billion oil facility, was agreed during PM Khan’s visit to Riyadh last October
- Pakistan is facing a wide range of economic challenges, including high inflation, sliding forex reserves and a depreciating currency
UN torture expert decries Pakistan ex-PM Khan’s detention
- Khan’s party alleges government is holding him in solitary confinement, barring prison visits
- Pakistan’s government rejects allegations former premier is being denied basic rights in prison
GENEVA: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan is being held in conditions that could amount to torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture warned Friday.
Alice Jill Edwards urged Pakistan to take immediate and effective action to address reports of the 73-year-old’s inhumane and undignified detention conditions.
“I call on Pakistani authorities to ensure that Khan’s conditions of detention fully comply with international norms and standards,” Edwards said in a statement.
“Since his transfer to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on September 26, 2023, Imran Khan has reportedly been held for excessive periods in solitary confinement, confined for 23 hours a day in his cell, and with highly restricted access to the outside world,” she said.
“His cell is reportedly under constant camera surveillance.”
Khan an all-rounder who captained Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, upended Pakistani politics by becoming the prime minister in 2018.
Edwards said prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement is prohibited under international human rights law and constitutes a form of psychological torture when it lasts longer than 15 days.
“Khan’s solitary confinement should be lifted without delay. Not only is it an unlawful measure, extended isolation can bring about very harmful consequences for his physical and mental health,” she said.
UN special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council. They do not, therefore, speak for the United Nations itself.
Initially a strong backer of the country’s powerful military leadership, Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in 2022, and has since been jailed on a slew of corruption charges that he denies.
He has accused the military of orchestrating his downfall and pursuing his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its allies.
Khan’s supporters say he is being denied prison visits from lawyers and family after a fiery social media post this month accusing army leader Field Marshal Asim Munir of persecuting him.
According to information Edwards has received, visits from Khan’s lawyers and relatives are frequently interrupted or ended prematurely, while he is held in a small cell lacking natural light and adequate ventilation.
“Anyone deprived of liberty must be treated with humanity and dignity,” the UN expert said.
“Detention conditions must reflect the individual’s age and health situation, including appropriate sleeping arrangements, climatic protection, adequate space, lighting, heating, and ventilation.”
Edwards has raised Khan’s situation with the Pakistani government.
