WASHINGTON – US economic engagement with Pakistan is to ensure that it’snot a failure in the future and stops being such a poor country, says asenior official of the US Treasury Department.
David Malpass, Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs, toldlawmakers during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday that the Trumpadministration also wants to ensure that any IMF loan to Pakistan is notused to repay its Chinese debt.
Pakistan is seeking an $8 billion extended loan facility from theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out of a severebalance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple its economy. The twoparties are still discussing the package and a final decision is expectedearly next month.
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At this House Financial Services Committee hearing on internationalfinancial institutions, several US lawmakers expressed concern thatPakistan may use the IMF loan to repay some of the $60bn loans it isborrowing from China for CPEC. Some lawmakers also argued that this hugeChinese debt was responsible for the economic challenges Pakistan wasfacing.
