ISLAMABAD – Asad Umar has revealed that Prime Minister Imran Khan wasprovided with an alternative solution to deal with the country’s financialcrunch instead of opting for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailoutpackage, a private media outlet reportedlinkonSaturday.
“In March, I went to the prime minister and showed him the numbers. I toldhim that going to the IMF was now a choice as opposed to compulsion,” AsadUmar, who is now the chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committeeon Finance, said at an event organised recently by the Karachi School ofBusiness and Leadership (KSBL).
“That choice had been created primarily because of the phenomenal goodwillof the prime minister in the global market, particularly in Asia, and avery mutually reinforcing relationship between the civil and the militaryarms of the government.”
As per an official at that time, Umar wanted to put these factors to workand also use the Pakistani military’s good relations with Gulf countries toraise funds from the global capital markets and commercial banks and applya combination of tariff and non-tariff barriers and gradual currencydepreciation.
Umar said it was at the prime minister’s discretion to decide whether toopt for the IMF programme or for the solution he had proposed.
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“Because every single expert agreed that we must go to the IMF, he decidednot to take that risk,” he added.
The former minister quoted prime minister as telling him back then: “Youknow I am a risk-taker but everyone is saying that we should go to the IMF.”
