Pakistan should renegotiate IMF bailout package, says influential leader of ruling PML-N party

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday the government should renegotiate a $6 billion bailout package provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the country, saying it was putting extreme financial burden on the people of Pakistan.
Dar is a close aide of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who is in self-exile in London. Sharif is the founding leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party which is currently leading the coalition government in the country.
The former finance minister told a local news channel that rising inflation and depreciation of Pakistan’s national currency were at the heart of the country’s prevailing economic problems since they were making it difficult for the government to address the financial problems of people.
Pakistan’s new finance minister Miftah Ismail recently met IMF officials in Washington and requested them to increase the size and duration of the $6 billion loan program. He also agreed to reverse oil and gas subsidies for the resumption of the IMF program which was stalled after the country’s previous administration announced a relief package of about $1.7 billion in February.
Dar, however, said the IMF loan in its current form had become detrimental to the country’s economic interests.
“We should have the spine to talk to them [the IMF] in national spirit,” he told Geo News, adding: “This program was onerous. It was very badly negotiated. Who are they [the IMF] to tell us where our currency should be? Who are they to tell us where our interest rate should be?”
Pakistan is currently facing significant economic challenges, as its fiscal deficit is expected to rise and its foreign currency reserves are running low.
The country’s former finance minister said the opposition had decided to bring a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan to fix the economic situation, though he warned it would not happen overnight.
“There is very limited time since [the parties in the new government] are committed to moving toward fresh elections after taking necessary steps,” he maintained. “I don’t think that any party – whether it’s the PML-N or its allies – has come to complete one and a half years in power. They are just there to do essential things such as electoral reforms etc. in national interest before moving toward elections.”
Asked why federal ministers from his own political party were saying the government would finish its tenure, he said the election commission had already said it could not hold the polls before October.
However, he emphasized it was everyone’s preference to hold new elections since all the political parties in the new administrative setup had been saying themselves that the last general elections were “stolen.”
Dar maintained the federal ministers who said the government was going to finish its tenure were presenting their own opinion, not the party policy.
In response to a question of what Nawaz Sharif wanted under the present circumstances, he said the founding leader of PML-N also hoped to move toward fresh elections as soon as possible.