ISLAMABAD: The government has rejected a request for providing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) contract details to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The IMF delegation which arrived on Thursday in Islamabad to hold talks with the Pakistani authorities is said to have raised the issue of CPEC deals during a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Planning and Development, sources said according to a report in Express Tribune.
Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform is said to have led the Pakistani side during the above-mentioned meeting.
Sources said that the ministry provides an analysis of the macroeconomic outlook and progress on the CPEC project to the IMF team.
The IMF team is on a visit to review the macroeconomic situation of Pakistan and is being led by its Washington-based Mission Chief, Harald Finger which constitutes of officials from the funds’ Lending Policy Division.
And sources shared the IMF delegation asked about the contract agreements linked to energy projects coming under CPEC, but the ministry didn’t share any information stating the details were privy to the Ministry of Energy (MoE).
Moreover, the sources told that the government was under no commitment to share any information regarding CPEC contracts to a third-party, especially when there was no official arrangement with the IMF at this juncture.
They added the Prime Minister Imran Khan had been apprised that the biggest negating factor of approaching the IMF for a bailout was the disclosure of Chinese financing deals under CPEC.
Also, the IMF delegation brought up the issue of progress on CPEC projects and official bilateral flows from China during an unconditional meeting with Finance Minister Asad Umar on Thursday.
In a meeting on Friday with the Ministry of Finance officials, the US embassy officials raised the issue of transparency in CPEC deals.
CPEC project coordinator Hasaan Daud said the IMF team had been apprised that currently, twenty-two projects worth $28.6 billion were in various stages of execution under CPEC.
Furthermore, the planning minister told the IMF team Pakistan was considering the possibility of completing $9 billion mainline project (ML1) of Pakistan Railways on a build-operate-transfer basis.
