On 19th August 2013 the LoI submitted by the Government of Pakistan to the IMF details a number of actions that are specific to the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) approved for Pakistan and as per the IMF website, "usually includes measures to improve the way markets and institutions function, such as tax and financial sector reforms as well as privatisation of public enterprises."
Critics, of course, argue that this particular type of IMF lending should have been avoided as it contains elements that have traditionally not formed part of the previous 25 LoIs and hence may have set a precedence that may not only increase the IMF's role in our economy in years to come but also reduce the capacity of any future government not to table conditions that may be unacceptable to it premised on a different politico-economic ideology. Thus Finance Minister Dar's detailing a privatisation and restructuring plan is unprecedented where he stipulated that the strategy to privatise 30 state-owned entities (SOEs) will be announced by the end of this month while the remainder would be completed by the end of the calendar year.
He also committed to privatise 26 percent shares of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) by the end of the current fiscal year - a detail which is again unprecedented and which he may be unable to fulfil in any event if domestic and international recession remains a mitigating factor.
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