Pakistan needs another lifeline from IMF for three years: PM 

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that Pakistan wanted to negotiate another loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spanning over three years, hinting at tough economic decisions to steer the country out of the crisis. 

Addressing the meeting of the Apex Committee of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) here, the prime minister said the IMF had concluded the final review for the last tranche of$1.1 billion that will hopefully be received by next month. 

After this, he said, Pakistan also wanted to start another programme with the IMF for a period of three years during which the government will take strict measures to bring deep-rooted structural reforms in the country. 

He was of the view that the government was going to make tough economic decisions to steer the country out of crisis assuring to protection of downtrodden segments of the society. He said that the burden of these measures would primarily fall on the wealthy and elite, with safeguards in place to protect the interests of the poor and vulnerable.

With the reforms, he said “we will succeed in gradually breaking the begging bowl and come out of the debt trap”. 

The prime minister sought the support of all political parties and the provincial governments to successfully implement the agenda of macroeconomic stability in the country. 

“For this, we will have to work together. With the support of all the provinces, we will together resolve all the challenges and difficulties faced by the country”, he added.