ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received $352 million from the United States under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for the January-March quarter of 2013.

During a meeting with US Ambassador Richard Olson here on Tuesday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar urged Washington to disburse the remaining instalments for last year at the earliest.

Ambassador Olson discussed with the minister bilateral economic issues and said the US wanted to improve its relations with Pakistan. Mr Dar was assured that the US would expedite the process of payment of the remaining amount under the CSF.

The two sides discussed matters relating to a meeting of the US-Pakistan Economic Working Group to be held in Washington in the second week of April. Ambassador Olson informed Mr Dar that a four-member delegation of the Congress Defence Committee would visit Pakistan this week.

Mr Dar briefed the US envoy on the recently concluded review meetings with the IMF and his meetings with the UAE leadership and the Etisalat management.

$147m paid to IMF

Pakistan paid the 27th installment under IMF/SBA facility amounting to SDR 96m and equivalent to $147m, a spokesperson for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in Karachi on Tuesday, according to APP.

With the repayment of the installment, Pakistan has repaid to the IMF SDR 4,290m equivalent to $6,550m since July 2011, of which SDR 3,715m equivalent to $5,660m was under SBA facility. After the current repayment, remaining amount due under IMF-SBA facility until Sep 2015 is SDR 1,220m, the spokesperson said.