Bilawal calls for renegotiating ‘ruinous deal’ with IMF

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday called for renegotiating the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), describing the current arrangement as a “ruinous deal”.

In a tweet, Bilawal said it had been his party’s potion for some time that the federal government must review the deal, which became even more urgent because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It has been Pakistan Peoples Party’s position for some time that federal government must renegotiate its ruinous deal with the IMF. Given we are facing global pandemic government must renegotiate new terms with IMF that takes into account impact of #COVID on global economy.

— Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (@BBhuttoZardari) March 26, 2020

He said given that the country was facing a global pandemic, the government must renegotiate new terms with the IMF, which took into account the impact of COVID-19.

There has been much criticism of the government for the terms it agreed with the IMF for a bailout package, including the increase utilities’ prices and the cut in development budget to reduce current account deficit.

Similar views were expressed by Shehbaz Sharif had suggested the other day to immediately slash the interest rate by 3 to 4 percent, saying it will enable the country to save up to Rs80 billion in debt servicing annually.

The amount should be diverted to fight the pandemic, he said, adding that Pakistan should leave the IMF deal if the Fund objected to that.