Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his government had “no other option” but to bow to demands from International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution dominated by foreign governments, and implement the targets from the global lender, calling it a “painful reality”.
Pakistan entered a $6 billion programme in 2019, which was increased to $7 billion earlier this year. The programme’s ninth review is currently pending for the release of $1.18 billion.
It had earlier been put off for two months due to the PML-N-led government’s unwillingness to accept certain conditions placed before it by the Fund, and the disagreements have yet to be resolved.
Earlier this month, IMF Resident Representative for Pakistan Esther Perez Ruiz had said that discussions between Islamabad and the international moneylender on the ninth review had been “productive” so far.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, the premier said the country had no other option but would have to implement the IMF programme and criticised the PTI for breaching its agreement with the international lender.
He lauded the nation for braving the burden of the price hike with patience.
PM Shehbaz also regretted that the government could not provide subsidies to any sector without approaching the IMF, saying that it was a “painful reality”.
During the press conference today, the prime minister revealed that the government had devised a plan to immediately convert all the federal government entities’ buildings to solar power by April to slash a huge chunk out of the country’s costly fuel import bill hovering around $27 billion.
Unveiling the details of the plan, he said the procedures for conversion of solar power should be fast-tracked as they had set April 2023 as the timeline for the implementation of this plan.
“Consider it as our political, social, national, and religious duty to implement it as soon as possible. PM Shehbaz highlighted that under the plan, all the federal government ministries, departments, authorities, and their offshoots in the provinces would immediately shift to solar energy.
He asserted that the project would be a model for the rest of the provincial governments as the federal government would not make additional expenditures over the solarisation process.
