On Friday, government officials revealed that Pakistan’s finance minister has canceled his scheduled visit to Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, citing domestic political issues as the cause.
Minister Ishaq Dar was slated to attend the IMF and World Bank meetings starting on April 10. He was planning to meet with top officials from the IMF and other multilateral creditors in order to secure much-needed funding that Pakistan requires to avoid a potential balance-of-payments crisis. However, due to domestic political challenges, he has had to cancel his visit.
Since early February, Islamabad has been in discussions with the IMF to secure funding worth $1.1 billion. This funding is part of a larger $6.5 billion rescue program that was agreed upon in 2019.
According to two government officials, political turmoil is the main reason for the cancellation of the finance minister’s trip to Washington. The English-language Express Tribune newspaper has reported that Minister Ishaq Dar himself confirmed that he will not be attending due to the ongoing political crisis in Pakistan.
However, the finance ministry has not provided any comment in response to a request made by Reuters.
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