Sharing the development, the finance minister said that the country will soon receive the seventh and eighth tranche of $1.17 billion. He congratulated the nation and thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for taking "tough decisions” and “saving Pakistan from default”.
“Alhamdolillah the IMF Board has approved the revival of our EFF programme. We should now be getting the 7th and 8th tranche of $1.17 billion. I want to thank Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for taking so many tough decisions and saving Pakistan from default. I congratulate the nation,” he said in a tweet.
Earlier, Miftah asked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra to resign and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Shaukat Tarin to quit politics for compromising national interest after an audio recording of their conversation on ‘sabotaging’ the IMF programme surfaced.
In the recording, Tarin can be heard telling Jhagra to write to the central government on how KP would not commit to a provincial surplus – a condition for the IMF programme – due to recent floods in the country.
Miftah told journalists that Jhagra had sent the letter directly to the IMF, adding that he should resign and Tarin should quit politics. Referring the leaked audio, the federal finance minister said that the real faces of the PTI leaders stood exposed, adding that the PTI tried to sabotage the IMF package.
He said that people should ask PTI chairman Imran Khan if the letter served national interest. “When they [PTI leaders] are writing letters against Pakistan’s interests, it is your responsibility to say no,” he said.
It merits mentioning here that Pakistan had entered the IMF programme in 2019.