Islamabad has taken a slew of policy measures since an IMF team arrived in Pakistan earlier this year, including a revised 2023-24 budget last week to meet the lender's demands.
The IMF added that without changes in the budgetary framework, the staff-level agreement cannot be achieved. This framework could pave the way for the approval of the 2023-24 budget.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Global Financing Summit in Paris came with about a week left before the IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed in 2019 expires on 30 June.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan’s Generals can’t risk opening a fourth front. Their surrender to the Tehreek-e-Labbaik last week demonstrates just how fragile the foundations of the State itself have become.
The chokehold of the Pakistani military on ideas has created a republic of fear. For Indians, the crisis ought to remind just how fragile democratic freedoms are.
The country is reeling from an economic crisis with inflation surging to 37.97% in May, posting a record for the second consecutive month and also the highest in South Asia.
PTI leaders including its senior vice-president Fawad Chaudhry, senior party leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and secretary general Asad Umar were arrested between Wednesday and Thursday.
Disenfranchisement by institutional fiat is profoundly undemocratic. The effect of the ECI's new documentary process in Bihar will tilt the scales in favour of the BJP.
Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.
India-Russia JV is also racing to deliver 7,000 more AK-203 assault rifles by 15 Aug. These are currently being made with 50% indigenisation and this will surge to 100% by 31 December.
Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.
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