Pakistan's economy not managed properly in past, PM Imran Khan admits

As loans worth billions of dollars continue to mount on Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday admitted that the country’s economy has been mismanaged in the past.

Speaking at an event in Islamabad, the Pakistan PM said such loans were taken in the past which instead of wealth creation further increased the burden of loans, The News International reported.

He said the Pakistan government is focusing on wealth creation projects to retire the country’s debt.

Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Pakistan, the Prime Minister on Tuesday had said that his government would approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another relief package to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Khan had said his government’s “main concern is to lift our people” out of poverty, The Express Tribune reported.

“We are going to speak to IMF because we see disruptions ahead. Just when our economy was recovering and all the indicators were positive, unfortunately, we will have to review the whole situation and our new Ehsaas Program,” he said.

Last month, Pakistan had received the third tranche of nearly $500 million from the IMF loan program.

“SBP has received IMF tranche of $498.7 million under the Extended Fund Facility,” Pakistan’s central bank had tweeted.

The loan was received after the country resumed the $6 billion loan program a couple of weeks ago, which was on hold since the outbreak of the pandemic.