ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has secured debt rollover commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a year, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, as the Pakistani finance minister expressed hope of getting an approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board for a $7 billion loan dead by the end of this month.
Pakistan last month reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a new $7 billion loan program to keep its fragile $350 billion economy afloat.
But the South Asian nation reportedly needed financing commitments from bilateral donors to get a final nod from the IMF board for the fresh bailout.
“Pakistan has secured commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to roll over debt for a year,” a Bloomberg report said on Tuesday. “Pakistan has $12 billion in bilateral loans that have been extended for the past few years.”
The South Asian nation completed a short-term $3 billion IMF program in April this year, which helped Islamabad avert a sovereign default last year.
“We are quite hopeful that the staff-level agreement will be converted into a board approval by the end of the month,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said, while addressing an event in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Bloomberg quoted Aurangzeb as saying that the amount of rollovers would be the same as last year.
Aurangzeb expected the incumbent Pakistani government to manage a $5 billion financing gap during the IMF’s three-year program, according to Bloomberg. He believed that Pakistan was moving in the right direction with a stable currency.
Pakistan was also aiming to improve its credit rating to “B-” after Fitch Ratings last month upgraded it by one notch to “CCC+,” following a staff-level agreement with the IMF.
The IMF earlier said the new loan deal, which would span 37 months, was aimed at strengthening fiscal and monetary policy as well as reforms to broaden the tax base, improve management of state-owned enterprises, strengthen competition, secure investment, enhance human capital, and scale up social protection through increased generosity and coverage in major welfare programs.
The deal came after the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presented its first budget in parliament in June, setting an ambitious tax collection target.
Analysts said at the time the new budget of about $68 billion, up from $50 billion in the last year, was likely to land a longer-term IMF bailout to help stabilize the economy.
Pakistan secures debt rollover commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and UAE — Bloomberg
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Pakistan secures debt rollover commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and UAE — Bloomberg
- Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb says the South Asian country has bilateral loans amounting to $12 billion
- Pakistan needed financing commitments from bilateral donors to get a nod from IMF for a new $7 billion loan deal
Security forces kill four militants in Pakistan’s volatile southwest, military says
- Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency
- The Balochistan government has recently established a threat assessment center to strengthen early warning, prevent ‘terrorism’ incidents
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces gunned down four militants in an intelligence-based operation in the southwestern Balochistan province, the military said on Tuesday.
The operation was conducted in Balochistan’s Kalat district on reports about the presence of militants, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
The “Indian-sponsored militants” were killed in an exchange of fire during the operation, while weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the deceased, who remained actively involved in numerous militant activities.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorist found in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from New Delhi to the statement.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency involving Baloch separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).
Pakistan accuses India of supporting these separatist militant groups and describes them as “Fitna Al-Hindustan.” New Delhi denies the allegation.
The government in Balochistan has also established a state-of-the-art threat assessment center to strengthen early warning and prevention against “terrorism” incidents, a senior official said this week.
“Information that was once scattered is now shared and acted upon in time, allowing the state to move from reacting after incidents to preventing them before they occur,” Balochistan Additional Chief Secretary Hamza Shafqaat wrote on X.
The development follows a steep rise in militancy-related deaths in Pakistan in 2025. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387.
These included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees, the think tank said.
