IMF Loan Pakistan: The heart of this IMF official is not sweating for Pakistan, who is Nathan Porter who will decide the fate
Nathan does not trust Pakistan!
Pakistan’s government and finance minister have held several rounds of meetings with Porter but no result has come out. Nathan Porter was given the responsibility of Pakistan by the IMF in February 2022. He was sent to the country as the Mission Chief at a time when political instability was increasing along with the economic crisis. Nathan was earlier posted in Armenia. The government of Pakistan has held about a dozen meetings with Nathan in the last one year and each time it was successful.
In the latest case, Nathan and his team have not yet handed over the Memorandum for Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) to the Government of Pakistan. This is the document after which Pakistan can get bailout package. Nathan has no faith that the promises made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government will be fulfilled. Apart from this, Nathan also does not believe that people like China and Saudi Arabia will give loan to Pakistan.
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yes to armenia no to pakistan
After arriving in Pakistan in February, Nathan met representatives of the government several times from February to December. In the year 2019, Pakistan requested the IMF for a bailout package. Since then it has been reviewed eight times. When Nathan reached the country, he held several meetings in February, May, August, September, October, November and December, but every time the issue got stuck somewhere. For the first time in May 2022, he held a major meeting with the government in Doha, Qatar.
It is also interesting that at the time Nathan was appointed the IMF head of Pakistan, at that time he had approved the bailout package for Armenia. When there was a meeting with the government on January 31, Nathan expressed confidence that Pakistan would meet the requirements that would help it get the loan.
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Nathan’s Difficult Terms
Along with an annual 10 to 20 per cent cut in the defense budget, the IMF has demanded that the assets of military and civilian officials be declared. Also, the Shahbaz government will have to announce a mini budget of $300 billion this month itself. Pakistan has to face circular debt of $900 billion. In such a situation, he will have to impose heavy taxes. Along with this, the exemption on electricity, gas and energy will have to be abolished. Along with this, a condition of 17 percent GST has also been placed on all petroleum products. Apart from this, only after consulting the IMF, Pakistan will be able to make changes in any finance related laws. Under the terms of the FATF, the IMF will oversee the law of accountability, audits and decisions on money laundering.
Don’t expect from Nathan Shahbaz!
According to the information received from Nathan’s LinkedIn profile, apart from being the Chief of IMF Pakistan, he is an advisor on finance in the Middle East and Central Asia. Apart from Armenia, he has also looked into the affairs of China. Porter, who studied at the University of Pennsylvania, has also been a senior economist in Australia’s Ministry of Finance. Porter has 30 years of experience in finance matters. Nathan’s stance is very tough in every negotiation. In such a situation, there is little doubt that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will get relief easily.
