All IMF prior conditions met

ISLAMABAD: The last stumbling block in the way of reviving the stalled IMF programme has been cleared amid as the Upper House of Parliament passed the SBP Amendment Bill 2021 with majority of just one vote.

Now all prior conditions of the IMF have been fulfilled by Pakistan, including approving the mini-budget and State Bank of Pakistan Amendment Bill 2021 on Friday. It was done with the majority of just one vote as 43 senators voted in favor of the government’s tabled bill while 42 senators voted against it.

The IMF’s Executive Board is now scheduled to consider Pakistan’s request for completion of the Sixth Review and release of $1 billion tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) on February 2, 2022, in Washington DC. Upon receiving the request from the Pakistani side, the IMF had extended its Executive Board meetings thrice within this month.

The IMF Board meeting was extended last time from January 28 to February 2, 2022. The IMF program got stalled since April 2021, so the Sixth Review is going to be completed after nine months. Now the next Seventh Review under the $6 billion EFF program will become due in April 2022. The last and final Eighth Review is expected to be done in September 2022.

Despite objections raised by the parliamentarians as well as independent economists, the government passed the SBP Amendment Bill 2021 with the objective of targeting inflation and ignoring growth objectives, slapping a ban on borrowing of government, abolishing Monetary and Fiscal Coordination Board, extending the tenure of governor SBP from 3 to 5 years with the possibility of one more extension of five years.

On the first counting for the SBP Amendment bill, there was a tie on 43 votes each between the treasury and opposition benches, and chairman Senate cast his vote in favor of the government to rescue the government. On the amendment proposed by the opposition senators, all the amendments were rejected, and voting on this occasion, the treasury benches got 43 votes while the opposition obtained 42 votes, so one vote of the opposition decreased. A senator belonging to ANP did not vote in favor of the opposition on the second counting on the proposed amendments by the opposition senator.

Despite the majority of the opposition benches, the government managed its success on this important bill. There were eight senators belonging to opposition benches who remained absent from the crucial Senate meeting.

There have been some interesting scenes on the occasion of approving the controversial SBP Amendment Bill 2021 as Senator Dilawar, sitting on opposition benches, voted in favor of the government.

With all-out support of Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, the government managed to bulldoze the SBP Amendment Bill 2021 successfully. When the Senate kick-started its proceedings on Friday, the chairman Senate halted the proceedings of the House upon finding that the required numerical strength of treasury benches was not present in the House. The chairman Senate prorogued the House for 30 minutes. Then the House resumed its proceedings at 11.45am but in the first 15 to 20 minutes Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin did not come into the house. During this time, the opposition members made fiery speeches against the SBP Amendment Bill. Senator Sherry Rehman said that this bill which aimed at compromising the sovereignty of the country had made the parliament a joke. She said that it would even compromise the defence requirements of the country. The government, she said, should feel ashamed for introducing such a controversial bill in the parliament. Senator Farooq H Naek asked the chairman Senate not to accept this bill as the order of the day for one-month period.

Then the finance minister arrived in the House and the chairman Senate allowed him to lay the SBP Amendment Bill as approved by the National Assembly. The chairman Senate inquired whether the opposition members referred this bill to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance but rejected the opposition's demand. Then the resolution was presented before the House and there was a tie with 43 votes from each side, so on this occasion the chairman Senate rescued the government by casting his vote in favor of the government.

Then the amendments proposed by Senator Mushtaq Hussain were opposed by the finance minister and were rejected. The SBP Amendment Bill 2021 was passed by the Senate within 30 minutes without having any debate. Even Senator Mushtaq was not allowed to read out his proposed amendments during the proceedings of the House.