Meaningless resolve

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has once again touched on the subject of securing a loan from the International Monetary Fund and expressed the resolve that he would not let the country’s interests be compromised. It should be clear to any observer of Pakistan’s despairing economic scene that its interests, from the immediate perspective, dictate that it gets financial backing on reasonable terms to be able to meet its urgent commitments. However, the IMF, being the lender is well known for laying harsh conditions on its loans. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday on return from Istanbul where he had gone to attend the World Economic Forum, Mr Gilani said that the government had also asked the IMF to relax its conditions. This is rather confusing, because only two days earlier reports quoting Finance Ministry sources related a different story. It said that Pakistan had “minimised our conditions”, and as a result of this, its home-grown economic stabilisation package had been accepted by the IMF and that within 14 days of a formal request it would release $3.2 billion out of a total agreed amount of $4.6 billion. The rest would be delivered in two subsequent tranches. According to these sources, the package was the outcome of about 10-day-long negotiations held between the two sides at Abu Dhabi. However, its formal endorsement was expected at the forthcoming Washington meeting of the IMF on November 7 before which date Pakistan had to apply.