GENEVA: Premier Shehbaz Sharif on Monday asked International Monetary Fund (IMF) to pause terms and conditions for economic reforms, as the country is trying to recover after catastrophic floods.
In an international conference in Geneva, Prime Minister said, “We are now going for reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure and to put back 33 million people affected by floods on their feet which was an unprecedented and difficult task.”
He asserted, “when floods hit Pakistan, everything was destroyed.. and huge chunks of land in different provinces are still inundated by standing flood waters.”
Reiterating the government’s resolve, the Prime Minister, said that they were committed to complying with the terms and conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
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Regretting the previous government’s violation of an agreement with the IMF, he said that the current government aims to reset that and has to accept harsher conditions of the fund.
He said we are trying to comply with the IMF programme, but are constantly trying to persuade them, requesting for a pause on terms and conditions, as the country is still recovering from the catastrophe of a huge flood.
However, the prime minister said that Islamic Development Bank had pleaded $4.2 billion, which was a huge contribution.
According to APP, Pakistan has collected over a $10 billion pledge from international communities for the rehabilitation of flood-affected areas.
Meanwhile, the PM expressed confidence that they would be able to generate close to about $8 billion domestically and also looking towards the international community to contribute an equal amount to support these measures.
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