Cash-strapped Pak urges IMF for another bailout

Washington/Islamabad, Apr 20

Pakistan has made a formal request to the IMF for seeking the next bailout package in the range of USD 6 to USD 8 billion with the possibility of augmentation through climate financing, a media report said on Saturday. Cash-strapped Pakistan also requested to dispatch the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission next month to firm up details of the next bailout package for three years under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

However, the exact size and timeframe of the new package will only be determined after evolving consensus on the major contours of the next programme in May, Geo News reported from Washington.

A high-level Pakistani delegation led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is currently visiting Washington to attend the annual spring meetings of the IMF/World Bank. Although Pakistani authorities are pitching a rosy picture of the economy, the IMF in its latest Regional Economic Outlook (REO) released by Middle East and Central Asia (ME and CA) said the cash-strapped country’s external buffers deteriorated, mostly reflecting ongoing debt service, including Eurobond repayments.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to visit Saudi Arabia soon, his second trip this month to the friendly Gulf kingdom, to advance investment talks as his cash-strapped government has presented lucrative returns on Saudi investment. Pakistan has also assured priority in profits to Saudi investors without any hindrances.

In another development, a court has accepted requests for a medical examination of the incarcerated former PM Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi and also directed an endoscopy for the former first lady at a private hospital within two days.

Khan, 71, has been lodged at Adiala Jail at Rawalpindi after conviction in multiple cases while Bushra Bibi is currently jailed at Bani Gala — Khan’s home in Islamabad – which was turned into a sub-jail since the couple was sentenced in the ‘un-Islamic nikah’ case in February. — PTI

PM to visit Riyadh for investment talks

• PM Shehbaz Sharif is expected to visit Saudi Arabia soon, his second trip this month to the friendly Gulf kingdom, to advance investment talks as his cash-strapped government has presented lucrative returns on Saudi investment.
• Pakistan has also assured priority in profits to investors without any hindrance.