ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance minister Miftah Ismail on Thursday rejected local media reports that suggested Pakistan had agreed to sell its shares of New York’s Roosevelt Hotel to Qatar. 

Roosevelt Hotel, a 19-story building located at a prime location in New York, was inaugurated in Manhattan on September 22, 1924. Named after the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, Pakistan’s national airline leased it in 1979 through the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Investments Limited. 

Saudi Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud was also one of the investors in the 1979 investment deal, though the PIA decided to buy the hotel for $36.5 million in 1999 and later struck a deal with its Saudi partner in 2005 to buy his share in the property as well. 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Qatar earlier this week to hold talks with the country’s leadership. Following the visit, the Qatari emir’s office said the Gulf state aimed to invest $3 billion in Pakistan, leading to speculation that Pakistan was selling shares of the Roosevelt Hotel to Doha. 

“Some speculation is going on here that we are selling the Roosevelt Hotel and we are selling it for peanuts,” Ismail said at a press conference on Friday. 

“I assure you Roosevelt Hotel and PIA weren’t even discussed [during the recent meetings].”

The minister said Qatar was interested in acquiring Pakistani airports on long-term leases, instead of buying them. He said the Gulf country was also interested in construction ventures at Pakistan’s seaports. 

“They (Qatar) also showed their interest in investing in Pakistan’s capital market,” he added. 

Speaking about the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) board meeting on August 29, Ismail said Pakistan had fulfilled the lender’s tough conditions to resume its stalled $6 billion loan program. Islamabad is expected to receive an installment of more than $1 billion after an approval from the IMF board. 

The minister said the $4 billion external financing gap had been bridged after Qatar and Saudi Arabia respectively assured of new investments and a facility for Pakistan according to which it can receive oil on deferred payments. 

Pakistan has been facing a balance-of-payment crisis, with its foreign reserves dropping to $7.8 billion, barely enough for more than a month of imports. 

The South Asian is also struggling with a widening current account deficit, depreciation of local currency and inflation that rose above 24 percent in July.