Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar cancels trip to US amid 'domestic state of political affairs'

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 7 : Pakistan's Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar has cancelled his visit to the United States despite Islamabad making efforts to pursue the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release a loan tranche, The Express Tribune reported.

Isaq Dar hash cancelled his visit to the US citing the "domestic state of political affairs." Pakistan's Finance Minister will not attend the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF scheduled to take place from April 10-16 in Washington, The Express Tribune reported citing sources.

Pakistan's Finance Minister said, "I am not going due to the domestic state of affairs," The Express Tribune reported. The political uncertainty and developing judicial crisis were said to be the reasons behind Ishaq Dar's cancellation of the trip to the US. He had planned to address the financial and political world's concerns over the continuity of the government, future economic plans and bridging the trust deficit with the multilateral lenders.

According to the sources, Pakistan's Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will also not visit the US due to the prevailing uncertain political conditions, as per the news report. Ishaq Dar's decision to not travel to the US might also lead to the cancellation of meetings with his Saudi Arabia counterpart and the UK state minister for development.

As per the news report, Pakistan's Finance Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh and Economic Affairs Secretary Kazim Niaz will attend the World Bank and IMF spring meetings. Dar had meetings scheduled with the presidents of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Dar was also scheduled to hold a meeting with IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Monsio Sayeh. He was due to start his trip to the US with an opening meeting with the IMF's Mission Chief to Pakistan, Nathan Porter, on Monday, as per The Express Tribune report. The meeting was important as Pakistan has not been able to unlock the IMF bailout package.

Jihad Azour, the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the IMF, was also due to meet Ishaq Dar. Citing sources the report said, there was a meeting planned between Ishaq Dar and the IMF fiscal affairs department aimed at discussing issues, including Pakist Rupees (PKR) 276 billion shortfalls in tax collection during the first nine months of the fiscal year.

Ishaq Dar was due to hold a meeting with the representatives of the three international credit rating agencies that had downgraded Pakistan, as per the news report. The finance ministry had also lined up his meetings with the representatives of the foreign commercial banks aimed to pursue them to give commercial loans to Pakistan to address its external financing requirements.

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