ISLAMABAD – Pakistan will not seek IMF bailout package, finance ministerAsad Umar has revealed.

He has dispelled the notion that Pakistan will seek International MonetaryFund’s (IMF) assistance.

“Pakistan is not in an emergency situation that requires it to rush to theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) to seek a bailout,” he said, adding, “Wehave neither stopped imports nor imposed financial sanctions.”

He further said, “We need to take well-measured decisions. As a situationemerges, we take steps to manage it. We don’t want to take decisions in anemergency.”

An IMF mission is set to visit Pakistan on September 27. “We are indiscussion with them, but this is not to negotiate for a loan. Our purposeis to do our homework, in case we want to approach them at some stage,” thefinance minister commented.

Responding to a question about managing the balance of payment deficit,Umar said, “We are eliminating the root cause of this problem, and thatroot cause is the fiscal deficit. We have done that through the recentfinance bill which will reduce our cost of import.”