US Congressman urges Biden administration to help Pakistan secure IMF loan

WASHINGTON: As Pakistan continues to struggle with repercussions of fast-depleting foreign exchange reserves, US Congressman Al Green urged the Joe Biden-led government to play a role in “providing aid” to the South Asian nation through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Speaking at Congress Finance Committee, Green said that Pakistan is a case study on the effects of climate change. “As you know, Pakistan has suffered greatly from the floods that took place, beginning in June of 2022. I am going to ask you, if you were to use your good offices to help Pakistan, it clearly is in dire need of aid from the IMF and the World Bank as well,” he said.

The US lawmaker lamented that this global warming is something that the US may deny, but Pakistan is still suffering. “It emits about 1% of global greenhouse gases; we emit more than 10%, yet Pakistan suffers. Please do what you can,” he urged the authorities concerned to play their part.

In response to Green’s request, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said: “We’re supportive of the IMF’s work in Pakistan and there is a programme that is helping them deal with the devastation from the floods and their pre-existing fiscal and monetary problems, and we’re certainly supportive of the IMF’s work there.”

A few days ago, Pakistani-American Tahir Javed said he had met Green. During the meeting, Javed informed him that the coalition government had presented the budget at a time when its foreign exchange reserves were severely constrained. The government will face an extreme difficulty in fulfilling the commitments made in the budget for the next fiscal year 2023-24.

Javed said that keeping such things in mind, the US should force the IMF to release the South Asian nation’s pending tranche as soon as possible.