FOR those who wanted to know why the fourth review of Pakistan’s ongoing IMF programme was stalled for almost three months, the search for answers continues.

The government and the IMF have just concluded another round of negotiations in Dubai, in which the fourth and fifth reviews were clubbed together, and a statement at the end of the talks was happy to announce that the talks had, finally, ended successfully.

The Fund staff is now ready to recommend to the board that two drawings under both reviews be combined and released in a single $1.1bn tranche towards the end of next month.

The good news is that there is no major disruption in the programme, except for a delay of a few months which is a minor issue. Despite some challenges, the balance of payments is not so precarious that it cannot afford a few months’ delayed disbursement. The not-so-good news is that we are all left guessing at the reasons that led to the delay.

The talks for the fourth review began at the same time as the so-called long march of the PTI and PAT. The talks took place in Dubai with the escalating protests and rising political uncertainty in Islamabad as the backdrop.

Eventually, the talks were left inconclusive, with the Fund saying only that they would be completed in the days to come via video link.

The government blamed the protests for this. Speculation filled the empty space, with theories doing the rounds that the Fund was waiting to see whether the government would survive before committing more money, or that the Fund was demanding tough decisions such as a hike in power tariffs that the government was reluctant to take given the political circumstances in the country.

Those waiting for answers were disappointed with the just-released statement which decided to stick to the usual comfortable language rather than live up to the obligation to keep the key stakeholder in the whole process informed.

That key stakeholder is the citizenry of this country, and it will ultimately bear the cost of living up to the terms of this loan. All we know is that “[d]espite some difficulties” the programme “remains broadly on track”. This is as generic an endorsement as one can get. Heads are also being scratched over the analysis of the economy contained in the statement.

“Economic indicators are improving,” it says mysteriously, at a time when almost everybody is convinced that the government’s growth story has hit choppy waters. On the whole, the statement does little to temper the view that the Fund is operating along political lines.

An interruption in the disbursements is not possible while the US troop withdrawal is under way in Afghanistan, and tumult in the domestic political scene brings anxieties of its own. Given these complexities, a generic statement following a delayed review is simply not good enough.

Published in Dawn, November 11th , 2014