KARACHI , July 7, 2023: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is seeking the support of major political parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), for a recently announced $3 billion bailout programme, the lender said on Friday.
The IMF’s resident representative Esther Perez Ruiz said in a statement that the meetings with political parties were to “seek assurances of their support for the key objectives and policies under a new IMF-supported program ahead of the approaching national elections.”
The country is scheduled to hold general elections by early November. The new bailout programme, a nine-month stand-by arrangement, is going to be taken up by the lender’s board on July 12.
The IMF Executive Board is set to take up Pakistan’s SBA announced after a staff-level agreement last week in its meeting on July 12.
— Hammad Azhar confirms meeting —
Taking to Twitter, senior PTI leader and former finance minister Hammad Azhar said the party’s economic team had been approached by the IMF to solicit its support for the loan agreement and its broad objectives.
He further said in the tweet that an IMF team would call on the party chairman this afternoon, adding both PTI’s economic team and the IMF team will join, in person and virtually, to take part in the discussions.