Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday approved the immediate disbursement of about USD 1 billion to Pakistan under the ongoing Extended Fund Facility, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here said.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed satisfaction over the approval of a USD 1bn dollar instalment for Pakistan by the IMF and the failure of India’s high-handed tactics against it,” according to a statement issued by his office.
India earlier raised concerns over the efficacy of IMF programmes in the case of Pakistan, given its poor track record, and also on the possibility of misuse of debt financing funds for state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
The latest approval brings the total disbursements to $2 billion within the $7 billion program. The latest sanction comes after New Delhi had asked the IMF to review its loans to Pakistan, citing its continued support for cross-border terrorism against India.
Reuters reported that the staff-level agreement for the bailout program was reached between the IMF and the Pakistani government before tensions escalated between New Delhi and Islamabad. The global body did not respond to the agency’s request for a comment after the approval.
Before the approval, India on Friday opposed the IMF proposal to extend fresh loans of USD 2.3 billion to Pakistan, saying they could be misused for financing state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
The Union government registered its protest at the board of IMF, which met on Friday to review the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) lending programme (USD 1 billion) and also considered a fresh Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) lending programme (USD 1.3 billion) for Pakistan.
A statement by the Centre said that, “India pointed out that rewarding continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism sends a dangerous message to the global community, exposes funding agencies and donors to reputational risks, and makes a mockery of global values. While the concern that fungible inflows from international financial institutions, like IMF, could be misused for military and state sponsored cross border terrorist purposes.”
