Pak Asks US To Persuade IMF For Easier Terms For Package Revival: Report

The request was made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in his meeting on Wednesday with the visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury for Asia Robert Kaproth

Cash-strapped Pakistan has urged the US to use diplomatic influence to convince the IMF to show a lenient attitude towards Islamabad, amid tough conditions conveyed by the global lender to revive its fund programme, a media report said on Thursday.

The request was made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in his meeting on Wednesday with the visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury for Asia Robert Kaproth at the Finance Division, The News International reported.

Quoting sources, the newspaper reported that Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) continued exchanging data this week but the Washington-based global lender has not shown any lenient attitude or relaxed its tough conditions so far.

One of the bones of contention is persistent differences over the approach to dealing with the exchange rate as the IMF considers it completely unacceptable for maintaining an artificially stable exchange rate.