The sources said that the prime minister saw the IMF as the last resort to avoid a default and that was why he decided to intervene. After the conversation with the IMF chief, the prime minister instructed the finance ministry to share details of the next budget with the IMF. The contact was made a day before Finance Minister Ishaq Dar criticised the global lender again. Earlier, the prime minister had telephoned Georgieva and sought her intervention to start review talks, which eventually took place in February. Of the $6.5 billion, the IMF has not yet disbursed $2.6 billion, including $1.2 billion tranche linked with the completion of the 9th review.

Source: The Express Tribune May 30, 2023 07:32 UTC