Pakistan rejects report on IMF deal

Celina Ali

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday rejected the Intercept news story alleging sale of Pakistani weapons to Ukraine to get International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package for Pakistan. Responding to media queries on the latest Intercept story, Spokesperson Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, termed the story as baseless and fabricated.

She said: “the IMF Standby Arrangement for Pakistan was successfully negotiated between Pakistan and the IMF to implement difficult but essential economic reforms. Giving any other colour to these negotiations is disingenuous”. “Pakistan maintains a policy of strict neutrality in the dispute between Ukraine and Russia and in that context, does not provide any arms and ammunition to them. Pakistan’s defense exports are always accompanied with strict end user requirements”, she added.