Amid tough conditions conveyed by the IMF for the revival of its programme, Pakistan has asked the US authorities to use their diplomatic influence for convincing the lender to show a lenient attitude towards Islamabad.
This request has been made by Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in his meeting with the visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury for Asia, Robert Kaproth, at the Finance Division on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the sources said that Pakistan and the IMF continued exchanging data this week, but the Fund has not shown any lenient attitude or relaxed its tough condition so far. One of the bones of contention is persistent differences over the approach to dealing with the exchange rate as the IMF considers it completely unacceptable for maintaining an artificially stable exchange rate. Though PM Shehbaz Sharif had publicly announced that the government was ready to implement all IMF conditions for reviving the Fund programme, the government was finding it politically hard for implementing the tough conditions. When contacted, a senior official of the Finance Division said the talks continued in a positive way.
An official announcement here said that Senior Macroeconomist for the Department of Treasury for Pakistan Eva Ghirmai, Financial attache’ Larita Bolden, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr. Aisha Ghous Pasha, SAPM on Finance Tariq Bajwa, secretary of finance and senior officers from Finance Division attended the meeting.
