ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has refused to budge before IMF pressure and thestrict conditions for the bailout package.
The talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aren’t going well,according to a senior official privy of the developments.
According to a report in *Dawn, *the depth of the adjustment being soughtby the IMF is way too extensive and accession to the programme is likely tobe delayed.
The state of the talks with the IMF according to senior officials of thefinance ministry are bleak at the present juncture.
One of the officials said there was no chance that the adjustmentsrecommended by the IMF can be made and the demands in their present formare too sheer to be executed.
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Consequently, this has put the government in a catch-22 situation, sincesecuring an IMF bailout is critical to unlocking access to resources frommultilateral lenders like the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank andthe international financial markets.
Meanwhile, the authorities have received a lifeline in the form ofbilateral support from Saudi Arabia and a commitment from UAE of another $3billion deposit to be parked in the central bank “in the coming days.”
