October 17, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 17, 1429

MANILA, Oct 16: Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz accused the International Monetary Fund on Thursday of failing to show leadership during what he described as a “historic” global financial crisis.

As world leaders met to shore up distressed financial institutions, Mr Aziz charged that “this global institution which is supposed to look at everything going on was not even in the room where meetings are going on.”

Speaking at an international business conference in Manila, the former Citigroup banker said interest rate cuts, recapitalisation of banks and liquidity injections, while helpful, would not solve the problem.

“The very fabric of the global financial system is under threat,” Aziz said.

Mr Aziz said there was a need to boost the IMF’s regulatory powers and create a more powerful body.

“The world is becoming increasingly specialised,” he said, adding that existing systemic threats beyond the agency’s traditional monetary policy role must be addressed.

“A robust regulatory regime must touch all the stakeholders,” he said, with reference to the credit rating agencies that have come in for criticism amid the crisis. He said that the IMF or some other multilateral institution must become a global regulatory agency “because we’re dealing with a crisis of...historic proportions.”—AFP