Ishaq Dar Violated Pakistan’s Agreement with IMF: Miftah

Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that the country has repeatedly violated its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has resulted in a trust deficit between Pakistan and the global lender.

In a recent media interaction, the former minister highlighted that Pakistan twice breached the agreement with the IMF during the previous government. He said that after the coalition government came into power last year, the government was paying billions of rupees as a subsidy on petroleum products.

He said that the government had assured the IMF of reversing the subsidy on petroleum products after which the IMF released a loan tranche for Pakistan. He said that subsequently he was removed and replaced by Ishaq Dar as the finance minister who violated the agreement with the IMF.

Ismail said that there is now a trust deficit between Pakistan and IMF as the country has violated its agreement with the global lender three times in recent years.

He said that the latest announcement by the government to cross-subsidize petrol has once against alerted the IMF. He said that the IMF now wants Pakistan to arrange external financing from friendly countries before proceeding with the staff-level agreement.

The former finance minister also commented on the government’s proposed petrol subsidy scheme and said that it is unlikely that the scheme will go through.