ISLAMABAD: As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday blamed PTI chief Imran Khan for obstructing the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari sought the help of global financial institutions to tackle economic woes.

In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Sharif said the protests taken out by the former ruling party were a part of Imran Khan’s “plan to foment instability” in the country.

Mr Sharif claimed that the former prime minister did not want the masses to be lifted out of poverty. First, the PTI chairman exited the IMF programme and now he was resisting the courts, he said, adding Imran Khan also deviated from his promises.

‘Cherry on the cake’

Meanwhile, at the United Nat­ions, Mr Bhutto-Zardari asked for global support for the economic recovery of cash-stra­pped Pakistan. He described the delay in the deal with the IMF as “the cherry on the cake”.

Bilawal urges global lenders to ‘provide relief’ in ‘incredibly difficult time’; US proposes to double economic support to $82m

The foreign minister, who was in New York to chair two UN meetings on Muslim women and Islamophobia, said at a Friday afternoon news briefing that the country was facing “a perfect storm of crises” and needed support to weather it out.

Responding to a question, Mr Bhutto-Zardari agreed with the reporter that Pakistan was facing an “incredibly difficult time” but said that some of the causes of this crisis were beyond its control.

“There are harsh economic realities across the world. We are facing the brunt of them because we have the economic impact of the Covid pandemic that we are still feeling and facing in the form of inflation,” he said. “We then have the economic impact of the fall of Kabul (where) an economically functioning state on our border until a year ago collapsed…which has impacted the region.”

Another major factor, he said, was the war in Ukraine, which has had an outsized imp­act on developing countries, including Pakistan, in the form of energy and food shortages and sky-rocketing inflation.

“To top it all off, we faced, last year, a climate catastrophe in the form of floods, which has had a devastating impact on our economy,” he said, adding that terrorist activities in Peshawar and in Karachi too affected the country’s economy.

“And finally, the cherry on the cake is the negotiations with the IMF, as ever ongoing and still not concluded. And that uncertainty also has economic consequences,” he added.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that Pakistan was “facing a perfect storm of crises” and the country’s economic situation was “nothing short of a disaster”.

“The weakest, the poorest in the Pakistani society…are facing the burden of this more than anybody else, which is why we insist, and we request the international financial institutions to cooperate with Pakistan appropriately so that we could provide relief to our people,” he said.

As the foreign minister appealed for international support at his briefing in New York, an official statement in Washington said the Biden administration has proposed to double the economic support fund to Pakistan to $82 million for fiscal year 024. The money would come from the Economic Support Fund, which provided $39 million in 2022.

“Assistance to Pakistan will expand private sector economic growth; strengthen democratic institutions; and advance gender equity and women’s empowerment,” the US State Department said.

The assistance can be used to support the country’s recovery from floods, diversify the energy supply, and support activities to build emergency preparedness capabilities, said the budgetary proposal sent to Congress on Friday.

Pakistan could also receive $17 million for narcotics control and law enforcement and another $3.5 million for international military education and training programmes. The US administration has also proposed $32 million to Pakistan from a global health programme.

On Thursday, the United States reiterated its pledge to work with Islamabad to put the Pakistani people back on a sustainable economic path. Mr Price noted that the government in Islamabad was already working on a reform agenda with the IMF and “we encourage Pakistan to continue” doing so.

Anwar Iqbal in Washington also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023