Dar withdrew from the following spring sessions of the WB and IMF.
Among the causes, citing the worsening political unpredictability and the growing problem in the country’s legal system.
ISLAMABAD: In a significant step, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has canceled his trip to the United States, where he had been due to meet with IMF management to discuss the staff-level agreement for the resurrection of the delayed rescue package.
According to authoritative sources, Dar would not travel to Washington, D.C., for the World Bank-IMF spring meetings, which would take place from April 10 to April 16. Dar, who serves as the Senate’s leader in the House, was planned to arrive in Washington on Sunday.
The finance minister told The Express Tribune on Thursday that he wouldn’t be travelling because of the situation at home.
The cancellation of the trip to Washington was cited as a result of the growing judicial crisis and growing political unrest. Dar had a strategy to address the worries of the financial and political worlds about the stability of the government, upcoming economic initiatives, and closing the confidence gap with the multilateral lenders once more.
According to the reports, the current tumultuous political environment would prevent Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq from traveling to the United States as well. In the World Bank, Pakistan was always represented by the minister of economic affairs. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Ayaz were said to be very close. Ayaz also oversaw the political affairs of the coalition parties.
Meetings with his Saudi Arabian equivalent and the UK state minister for development may also be canceled as a result of the finance minister’s withdrawal.
At the WB-IMF spring meetings, the government would be represented by Economic Affairs Secretary Kazim Niaz and Finance Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh.
A secretary may still meet some of the senior foreign officials since they were regarded as equal to deputy ministers.
Tariq Bajwa, the special assistant to the prime minister for finance, might take Dar’s job. Nevertheless, according to the sources, the PM’s special assistant was of a lesser level owing to diplomatic etiquette concerns and might not be allowed to meet with the presidents of numerous international institutions and the finance ministers of other nations.
For Pakistan’s intentions to get $6 billion in extra loans to satisfy the final IMF need, Dar had booked meetings with the presidents of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. These three multilateral creditors were extremely important.
Dar and IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Monsio Sayeh had a scheduled meeting for next Thursday, but Managing Director Ms. Kristalina Georgieva failed to schedule it.
IMF Resident Representative Esther Perez stated, “The Pakistan delegation will have a high-level discussion at the spring meetings with IMF’s deputy managing director Ms Sayeh, who follows Pakistan closely,” in an interview with The Express Tribune on Thursday.
Dar was supposed to see Nathan Porter, the head of the IMF’s mission in Pakistan, on Monday to kick off his tour. The conference was important because after the government’s unexpectedly financially unwise announcement of petrol subsidies, Pakistan and the IMF were no longer actively talking.
Although the administration insisted the fuel subsidy would not have an impact on the budget, the proposal did not appear to provide that assurance.
According to the sources, neither Waly Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the Treasury, nor Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, had announced an appointment.
Similarly, Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID, was unable to attend the conference despite having a meeting planned with the USAID assistant administrator for South Asia.
A meeting with the finance minister was also planned with Jihad Azour, the IMF’s director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department.
According to the sources, a meeting with the IMF’s fiscal affairs section had also been scheduled to examine matters including the staggering Rs 276 billion shortfall in tax revenue during the first nine months of the fiscal year.
The three international credit rating agencies that had downgraded Pakistan and temporarily shut the doors to borrowing from foreign financial markets were also scheduled to be present at the meeting with the finance minister.
The finance ministry had also scheduled talks with representatives of international commercial banks in an effort to persuade them to offer commercial loans in order to satisfy the needs for external financing.
These meetings could still happen in some cases.
