Rabbani assails meetings of IMF staff with envoys over assurances

ISLAMABAD: Former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani on Wednesday took a strong exception to local IMF staff for cross-checking and seeking assurances from ambassadors of countries that have pledged to help Pakistan in its external financing gap. He demanded that the caretaker government should bring details of its meetings with the IMF before the Senate.

“It is a matter of deep shame and regret that the credibility of the caretaker government has dropped to a level where the local IMF staff is cross-checking and seeking assurances from ambassadors of countries that have pledged to help Pakistan in its external financing gap,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

The former chairman Senate said the IMF Pakistan staff had no right to call on the UAE ambassador as the IMF is treating Pakistan like a client state that is not to be trusted. He asserted that the IMF staff in Pakistan has no business to be engaged with ambassadors accredited to Islamabad and monitoring commitments between two sovereign states.