Government should renegotiate deal with IMF: Bilawal

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said the federal government must renegotiate its deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said given the situation and the impact of the coronavirus on the global economy, the government must negotiate new terms.
On Thursday, he tweeted, "It has been Pakistan People's Party's position for some time that [the] federal government must renegotiate its ruinous deal with the IMF. Given we are facing [a] global pandemic, [the] government must renegotiate new terms with [the] IMF that takes into account impact of COVID on [the] global economy."
Meanwhile, former Senate chairman and PPP senior leader Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said while talking to Business Recorder that federal government should present weekly reports on loans and its financial agreements with multinational donor agencies and import of premedical equipments to protect from coronavirus from foreign countries in order to ensure transparency.
He said that the government wanted to take more loans due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which was wreaking havoc on an already over-burdened economy. He said that the government had contacted the IMF, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB), asking for more than $3 billion in grants.
The former Senate chairman said that the government had previously avoided presenting the financial agreements for loans in the parliament. He said that it also reported that the federal government was negotiating with international donor agencies for loan due to worst economic situation in the country.
He said that the federal government was also importing paramedical equipment, which would be used for treatment of coronavirus patients. He said that the government should also present its weekly report to the CCI and parliament.
He said that a session of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) should be held every week, where details of the agreements, transactions, and other details should be presented. He said that according to Article 153 of the Constitution, CCI was a platform where the prime minister should take decisions and its report should be presented in the parliament. He said that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of all the provinces should present weekly report to the CCI.