ISLAMABAD – Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has made it clear that nobody in Pakistan can compromise the nuclear and missile assets of the country, despite tough economic conditions and hurdles to secure a loan from the IMF.
“We are a sovereign nation and nobody in the world has the right to tell us what range of missiles we should have,” the minister said this during the Senate Committee of the Whole meeting here yesterday.
Responding to a query from Senator Raza Rabbani, he assured that details of the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund will be made public.
“Once the agreement is signed, it will be put on the website of the Finance Ministry for review of the general public and nothing will be concealed.
Dar also said he believes in transparency and fiscal discipline in the country.
Meanwhile, Ishaq Dar in a tweet disclosed that Pakistan is all set to receive much needed another loan tranche of $500 million from China in next few days, which would build the country’s foreign exchange reserves as the documentation in this regard has been completed by finance ministry.
“Out of Chinese ICBC’s approved rollover facility of $1.3 billion (which was earlier repaid by Pakistan to ICBC in recent months), documentation for second disbursement of $500 million has been completed by Finance Ministry for release of funds to the State Bank of Pakistan,” he said. The government is expecting to receive the amount in next few days.
The inflow of $500 million would bring total Chinese commercial loans up to $1.7 billion in recent weeks. Pakistan had already received around $1.2 billion from China in the last few days. Pakistan is expecting to receive another $800 million from China in two tranches in the ongoing month, making the overall financing from the friendly country to reach $2 billion. The Chinese loan inflow has helped in building the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $9.846 billion as of 10th March, 2023. The break-up of foreign reserves position according to foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan is $4.319 billion, and net foreign reserves held by commercial banks are $ 5.52 billion. “During the week ended on 10-Mar-2023, SBP’s reserves increased by $18 million to $4,319.1 million,” the State Bank of Pakistan stated on Thursday. Meanwhile, Pakistan is working to fulfil another prior action of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give written commitment from the friendly countries for external financing during the current fiscal year to revive the much needed loan programme. Friendly countries including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have pledged with Pakistan to deposit two billion dollars and one billion dollars respectively in State Bank of Pakistan’s account. Meanwhile, Qatar had shown interest in making huge investment by purchasing power plants.
Article source: https://www.nation.com.pk/17-Mar-2023/governdar-s-unyielding-pledge-nuclear-and-missile-programs-here-to-stay