Possible IMF accord still weeks away, says Tarin.

Shaukat Tarin, the head of the PTI and a former finance minister, criticized the current coalition government’s economic policies on Wednesday and claimed that a prospective agreement with the IMF for the reactivation of the extended fund facility (EFF) was still weeks away.

Tarin remarked in a statement to the media in Islamabad: “We pray [a deal is reached].” We are nothing without the country, and it belongs to us. We ask that they (the government) reach an agreement [with the IMF] that does not put the people at financial risk.

However, the former banker emphasized that this was currently a work in progress.

“They (the IMF) claim in their statement that this is a work in progress and that there has been some progress; they also state that the memorandum of economic and financial policy (MEFP) will be delivered on Friday. How can it be declared that an agreement has been reached if that hasn’t been received?”

The MEFP, according to Tarin, would be a lengthy and intricate document that would be debated over and analyzed “line by line.” He continued, expecting that the deal would be completed by the end of July that a technical agreement would be signed and sent to the IMF’s board in Washington.

But because the financial markets are uneasy, as I already mentioned, we require proof that a broad consensus has been reached.