The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cleared a $1-billion tranche for Pakistan as part of its $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) lending program and $1.3 billion tranche under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) in its board meeting held Friday.
India abstained from voting in the meeting as it raised concerns over the efficacy of IMF programmes for Pakistan given its “poor track record” and also on the possibility of “misuse of debt financing funds for state-sponsored cross-border terrorism”, an official release by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India said.
India conveyed its “strong dissent” as the IMF reviewed the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) lending program ($1 billion) and also considered a fresh Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) lending programme ($1.3 billion) for Pakistan.
Reuters quoted Pakistan government’s statement to say that the IMF has freed $1 billion in cash after the first review of the $7 billion programme for Pakistan.
The review approval brings disbursements to $2 billion within the $7 billion programme.
The concern that fungible inflows from international financial institutions, like IMF, could be misused for military and state-sponsored cross-border terrorist purposes resonated with several member countries.
Source: PIB, Wikipedia, The Indian Express, The Hindu, The times of India, X,