Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions to discuss the issue. Cash-strapped Pakistan has constituted a negotiation committee to finalise a deal with the UAE for handing over its Karachi port terminals as it seeks to raise an emergency fund amid uncertainty over the revival of a stalled loan from the IMF.
Last year, Pakistan’s coalition government enacted the Intergovernmental Commercial Transactions Act, aimed at selling state assets on a fast-track basis to raise funds. The country is in dire need of additional money amid uncertainty over the revival of the USD 6.5 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was initially signed in 2019 and is set to expire by the end of this month.
Sources indicate that the government needs to be extra careful when finalising a deal with the UAE, as it will be the first transaction of its kind, and the outgoing operator is also posing some challenges, the report said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a meeting with the ambassadors of key countries to get support for the revival of the stalled IMF deal.
The government is making a last-ditch effort to get the unpaid portion of the $6.5 billion packages, which was signed in 2019 and would terminate on June 30. The Express Tribune newspaper reported that the government on Monday invited the ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The prime minister apprised the foreign ambassadors about the efforts that Finance Minister Dar and he personally made during the past many months, a participant of the meeting told on condition of anonymity.
The prime minister again stressed that the government was keen to get at least the $1.2 billion IMF loan tranche out of the remaining USD 2.6 billion, which is attached with the completion of the pending 9th review of the program, said the sources. Some ambassadors sought clarifications from the government but assured that they would communicate Pakistan’s position to their capitals, according to another participant of the meeting. The ambassadors are also in touch with the IMF staff, reported the paper. The government has not issued any official statement after the meeting.
