New Delhi, May 23
Amid India’s objections to the International Monetary Fund bailout package to Pakistan, the IMF has said the debt-ridden country "met all the required targets" to receive the latest loan instalment.
The IMF recently gave the nod to a $ 1 billion (over Rs 8,000 crore) bailout package to Pakistan even as India expressed reservations.
The bailout came when Pakistan was retaliating to India’s Operation Sindoor -- a military strike on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
India had asked it to reconsider the bailout as Pakistan allows terrorists to use its soil for launching state-sponsored attacks against Indian citizens.
Last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the aid to Pakistan is a "form of indirect funding to terror" and had cautioned the international agencies, including the IMF.
The global lender disbursed $2.1 billion to Pakistan in two tranches under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme. The IMF and Pakistan last year signed a deal for $7 billion under the EFF.
Defending its loan, IMF's director of the communications department, Julie Kozack, said on Thursday, "Our Board found that Pakistan had indeed met all of the targets. It had made progress on some of the reforms, and for that reason, the Board went ahead and approved the programme."