ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was giving his country a “tough time” over unlocking stalled funding from a $6.5 billion bailout at a time of “unimaginable” economic crisis.
Hours after his remark, the Pakistani rupee hit a record low against the US dollar in a steep slide since the last week.
“Our economic situation is unimaginable,” the premier said, adding the IMF visiting mission was giving Pakistan a “tough time.”
“The conditions we have to fulfill are beyond imagination,” he said, but admitted that the country has no option but to accept them.
“You all know we are running short of resources,” Sharif said, adding the country was “facing an economic crisis”.
He made the comments in a meeting of civil and military leaders in the northwestern city of Peshawar he chaired to prepare a response to Monday’s mosque bombing that killed more than 100 persons.
He was speaking in the context of funds the country might need for any military or counter-terrorism response to the resurgent Islamist militancy.
IMF’s Pakistan representative did not make a comment.