ISLAMABAD  -    Pakistan is working to fulfil anoth­er prior action of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give a writ­ten commitment from the friend­ly countries for external financing during the current fiscal year to re­vive the much needed loan pro­gramme. Although, Pakistan has ful­filled all prior actions of the IMF, but the government faced another con­dition of providing a written com­mitment from the friendly countries for external financing during the current fiscal year. 

Friendly countries including Sau­di Arabia and UAE have pledged with Pakistan to deposit two bil­lion dollars and one billion dollars respectively in State Bank of Pa­kistan’s account. Meanwhile, Qa­tar has also shown interest in mak­ing huge investment by purchasing power plants. 

Officials have informed that the government is actively working to fulfil this condition of the Fund.

Pakistan has already briefed the Fund on its plan to increase the for­eign exchange reserves held by the central bank to $10 billion by June this year with the help of friendly countries. The IMF was informed that the country’s foreign exchange reserves have started to build after inflows from China. Pakistan has re­ceived around $1.2 billion from Chi­na in the last few days. Pakistan is expecting to receive another $800 million from China in the ongoing month, making the overall financ­ing from the friendly country to reach $2 billion.

Pakistan and IMF have yet to reach on staff level agreement as both sides are continuously negotiating since January 31 this year. The gov­ernment had met all prior actions of the IMF. Top government offi­cials including Prime Minister, Fi­nance Minister and Governor SBP have claimed several times that Pa­kistan and IMF would soon reach a staff level agreement. However, the deal has yet to finalize.