IMF to release tranche on Monday after board meeting: Miftah

ISLAMABAD, Aug 26 (APP): Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail Friday said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would release the tranche (worth US$1.17 bn) to Pakistan after its board meeting on Monday.

Addressing a press conference here, the minister said Pakistan had already fulfilled all the requirements of the IMF and it is very likely that the board would approve the release of tranche on Monday (August 29).

He said now the $4 billion gap had been bridged as Qatar and Saudi Arabia had also assured new investments and facility of getting oil on deferred payment for Pakistan.

The minister said the visit of PM to Qatar remained successful as Qatar had agreed to make $3 billion investment in Pakistan’s various sectors.

Further he also made it clear that there was not discussion or agreement of selling Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) or Roosevelt Hotel to Qatar saying that Qatar was interested in getting only the management control of Pakistan’s big airports.

Qatar is also taking interest to invest in Pakistan’s sea ports, LNG plants for which the Prime Minister had advised to hire an international advisor to get the actual price estimation, he said adding that Qatar was also interested to invest in large scale solar firms.

“The government is intended to install solar power plants with installed capacity of 8000 MW, as the solar energy would help generating cheaper electricity for the consumers”, he added.

“They (Qatar) also showed their interest to invest in Pakistan’s capital market.”