IMF denied govt claim about visit: Hammad.

ISLAMABAD -- While calling the current financial crunch worse than that during wars and Covid-19 pandemic, former state minister for finance Hammad Azhar on Sunday alleged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had to come forward to 'expose the lie' of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding an expected visit of its delegation within a couple of days.

Even if the IMF agreed to any arrangement, it would put very strict conditions on Pakistan due to the current state of the economy, warned the PTI leader while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

He criticised the economic policies of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government and said if the 'regime change operation' was not conducted, the country's economic situation would have been different.

He believed the IMF never negotiated programmes with interim governments and never felt comfortable while negotiating with outgoing governments either.

polls before June to allow new govt to negotiate with Fund

The former minister said the PM Office just a day ago issued a statement that the IMF managing director had called PM Shehbaz Sharif to inform him that a delegation would visit Pakistan within the next couple of days.

However, he added, the IMF denied it on Sunday, clarifying that the government of Pakistan had been continuously requesting to call and a discussion was held regarding the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan, scheduled for Jan 9 (today).

Energy crisis

'All the industries have been suffering due to current economic situation. Around 30 to 40 per cent industry has been closed. The country has energy crisis because foreign exchange is not available to procure coal,' he said.

The PTI leader said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had been claiming he would bring down the exchange rate of US dollar to less than Rs200, but it was now Rs226, with a huge gap of Rs50 between the official and open market rates.

'The difference...