The Inter-national Monetary Fund''s (IMF) newly-appointed mission chief to Pakistan Jeffery Franks arrived in Pakistan on July 30 and would be introduced to the Pakistani authorities. Sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday that Adnan Mazarei had been promoted and Jeffery Franks had replaced him as the Pakistan mission chief and would be residing in Washington DC.
"The mission chief will hold some introductory meetings with Pakistani managers. Also, the Fund is likely to discuss the economic reforms in Pakistan. The mission chief will be visiting the country with Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department of IMF, Masood Ahmed. IMF''s economic managers are likely to attend a seminar this week on the future of reform path in the country. But the dates of the seminar are not finalised so far," sources further said.
They said: "Pakistani authorities have not requested any financial assistance in the form of a new loan programme from the Fund so far despite the fact that its major loan providers like Asian Development Fund (ADB) and the World Bank have stopped their programme lending in the absence of Letters of Comfort. During the recent visit of Jeffery Franks, there would be no discussions on a fresh loan program between the Fund and the Pakistani authorities". Pakistan has to repay $1.4 billion to the IMF in calendar year 2012, in the year 2013 the country has to repay 2.362 billion SDR, 1.23 billion SDR in 2014, and 193 million SDR in 2015.