Federal Finance Minister Asad Umar has strongly denied reports about a possible rift between him and Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Speaking to media on returning from Bali, Indonesia, where he submitted a formal request for balance of payments support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – the finance minister said: “I heard these reports on the way back from Bali.”
He added that these reports are false and those media outlets that have run this report, as per his information, will be deleting the content from their website.
The next IMF mission will visit Pakistan on November 7 and consultations will continue for another 10 days, the minister said.
When asked about the size of the facility Pakistan will be asking for, Umar said that decision has not yet been made.
When asked whether he has met with the prime minister since his return from Bali, he said no, but there has been ample contact via messaging services.
“We interact 10 times a day” Umar said, “and the contact is constant.”
“He knew Pakistan was going to land up with the IMF all along,” the minister said. “He knew the writing was on the wall, and most likely we will land up with the IMF.”
Umar said that the video clips being shown on TV where Khan was heard saying that the country should not go to the IMF are at least four-years-old.
“There was only one day where Imran Khan said during a rally that we will not go to the IMF and I messaged him right away after that speech,” he said.
Khan was sure all along that Pakistan will go to the IMF during the campaign, the finance minister stressed.
Umar said that the government communicated nothing more than an in-principle decision to approach the IMF for balance of support in Bali.
“I had three meetings with the IMF,” he said. “The first one was with Jaffar Mojarrad. The second was with Jihad Azhour, and then finally with (IMF chief) Christine Lagarde and David Lipton. So there were multiple meetings.”
“The Lagarde meeting lasted about half an hour,” Umar said, adding that the other two meetings were of the same duration.
He emphasised that whatever agreement Pakistan eventually has with the IMF must be built around structural reforms.
When asked what exactly the structural reforms might consist of, Umar said that privatisation is not on the menu and that “there has been no discussion about any Value Added Tax” either, but reduction of the losses of the state-owned enterprises is a key part of the envisaged reforms.
The minister added that this is what the government team communicated as a priority.
“This is our priority” he underlined, “what they will ask for as their priority, we will wait to see once we meet.” 


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