Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has assured the officials of the United States administration that not only does it have a plan to take the country out of the ongoing financial crunch, but it also intends to fulfil the state’s commitments made with the global lenders and countries if it comes to power again.
Two weeks ago, PTI officials sat down with the US embassy officials to share the contours of its economic revival plan as well as to ensure that PTI would continue working with multilaterals like World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB), etc. and abide by the commitments made by the State with global lenders and States.
A senior PTI leader confirmed to The Express Tribune that “PTI is in touch with the US side”, saying that its economic team, which included Asad Umar and Hammad Azhar, recently discussed PTI’s broader economic policies with the US side at Islamabad.
The meeting was held in line with an earlier meeting between a visiting US delegation led by US Department of State Counsellor Derek Chollet with PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry in February this year.
In the previous meeting, sources had revealed, the US officials had asked PTI to share its economic recovery plan as well as PTI’s stance on the government’s understanding that it may reach with IMF to revive its bailout programme.
The proposal was sought after PTI had started trying to restore relations by assuring that it would abandon the anti-US narrative in the future. By then, PTI chief Imran Khan had given a narrative makeover to the alleged regime-change conspiracy after months-long bashing of the US and its officials.
Sharing details of the meeting, the former federal minister revealed that PTI has shared its plan of decreasing the fiscal deficit and increasing remittances as well as fresh investment from overseas Pakistanis with the US officials.
He confirmed that PTI has assured the US side that it is willing to work with international organisations and friendly countries as they have given sureties to the IMF on behalf of Pakistan, saying, “PTI shared three-month, nine-month, two years and five years’ economic plan with US side.”
Another PTI leader, who also served as a federal minister, said that broad economic plans have been discussed with the US side, but no specifics have been shared with them, saying that sharing such details with different countries is a routine thing and PTI would not mind sharing it if any other country shows interest.
Read Govt, PTI to go for final round of talks today
“We have never been anti-US; we have always been pro-Pakistan,” the former cabinet member said when asked about its public posturing against the US in the past. He said that protecting sovereignty is not equal to being anti-someone.
The PTI leader told the US officials that PTI feels that the economic policies need to rely on openness and trade, saying the party wants deep engagement with the multilaterals and friendly as well as other countries based on a balanced and open approach. “We want trade, not aid,” he added.
He said that the incumbent finance minister’s polices like a fixed exchange rate regime and imposing restrictions on imports were against the conventional economic wisdom and the “unprofessional dealing” was “causing damage to Pakistan”. He shunned the allegations that the IMF programme was derailed because of PTI.
The ex-minister said that the PTI officials told the US side that the party would go for deep structural reforms and take a departure from the “bizarre economic policies” of the incumbent government, saying that eccentric policies were causing huge damage to the economy, destroying exports and blocking foreign investments.
Referring to the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) causing losses of billions of rupees every year, the officials shared with US officials that PTI would either go for SOEs privatisation or public-private partnership model to make energy markets more open for investments. They said that deregulation of SOEs can attract local and foreign investment as currently, the private sector cannot invest in generation, transmission and distribution areas of the energy markets.
During the meeting, the PTI economic team apprised the US team that the former ruling party wants to bring changes in the taxation system and plans to bring the undocumented sectors into the tax net through technology. They maintained that PTI would end the disproportionate burden on the industrial sector.
To a question, both PTI leaders said that a meeting could also take place between the US officials and PTI chief Imran but it has not been scheduled so far. In the recent past, Imran and PTI not only showed a departure from the usual stance against the US but repeatedly conveyed the desire to restore relations with Washington.
After the US, Imran had accused former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa of regime-change conspiracy and exercising sweeping powers in most matters of governance, saying PTI was left to take all the blame.
COMMENTS (6)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ