KARACHI: Minister of Finance Asad Umar on Saturday strongly denied all reports about a possible rift between him and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Speaking to Dawn upon his return from Bali — where he submitted a formal request for balance of payments support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — the finance minister said, “I heard these reports on the way back from Bali.” He added that these reports were false and those outlets that have run this report, as per his information, will be deleting the content from their website.

The next IMF mission will visit Pakistan on Nov 7 and consultations will continue for another 10 days, the minister said. When asked about the size of the facility Pakistan will be asking for, he said that decision has not yet been made.

When asked whether he has met with the prime minister since his return from Bali, he said no, adding that he is scheduled to meet on Sunday morning, but there has been ample contact via messaging services. “We interact ten times a day” he said, “and the contact is constant”.

“He knew Pakistan was going to land up with the IMF all along,” he said. “He knew the writing was on the wall, and most likely we will land up with the IMF.”

He said the clips being shown on TV where Mr Khan was heard saying that the country should not go to the IMF are at least four years old. “There was only one day where Imran Khan said during a rally that we will not go to the IMF and I messaged him right away after that speech,” he said. Imran Khan was sure all along that Pakistan will go to the IMF during the campaign, the finance minister said.

He said the government communicated nothing more than an in-principle decision to approach the IMF for balance of support in Bali. “I had three meetings with the IMF,” he said. “The first one was with Jaffar Mojarrad. The second was with Jihad Azhour and then finally with Christine Lagarde and David Lipton. So there were multiple meetings. The Lagarde meeting lasted about half an hour,” he told Dawn, adding that the other two meetings were the same duration.

He emphasised that whatever agreement Pakistan eventually has with the IMF must be built around structural reforms. When asked what exactly the structural reforms might consist of, he said privatisation was not on the menu and “there has been no discussion about any Value Added Tax” either, but reduction of the losses of the state owned enterprises was a key part of the envisaged reforms. He added that this is what the government team communicated as a priority. “This is our priority” he underlined, “what they will ask for as their priority we will wait to see once we meet.”

When asked about the appointment of a serving Air Marshal as chairman PIA, he said the search for a CEO was still ongoing, and that is a crucial appointment.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2018