Amid growing concerns, IMF cautions Pakistan to be patient on demands from private sector

Islamabad, Jan 29 (IANS) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cautioned Pakistan to remain on course with its bailout plan and commitments amid growing demands from the country's private business sector to open up opportunities and create jobs through public-private partnership programmes.

Mahir Binici, the new IMF Resident Representative for Pakistan, has urged Islamabad to deliver on reforms, which he said would benefit people in the longer run.

"Pakistan needs to stay on course and remain committed to programme objectives. It also needs to be cautiously optimistic and have patience to stay on course in order to deliver on reforms so that people could benefit from it," said Binici while addressing a conference titled 'Dialogue on Economy' at the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

The IMF Resident Representative's statement comes at a time when Pakistan's business community is piling up complaints, concerns and recommendations with the provincial and federal government, highlighting a dire need to open the gates of public-private partnership.

Arif Habib, a renowned stock trader and founder of the Arif Habib Group, called on the Shehbaz Sharif government to realise the importance of moving forward with a public-private partnership framework immediately.

"Economic growth in the first quarter stood at only 0.92 per cent. Unemployment is increasing at a fast pace and there is not much opportunity for the business community. In fact, businesses are shutting down or shrinking their operations because of the losses they're suffering," said Habib during a meeting of the business community with the Chief Minister of Sindh Province Murad Ali Shah and leader of Pakistan People Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

"The government should consider public-private partnership, which would open gates for businessmen and also create jobs and tackle unemployment," he added.

The government, however, maintains that the economic crisis cannot be resolved instantly and insists that positive effects of the reforms would be visible in the coming days.

"There is no automatic switch from stability to growth. We need to change the DNA of the economy to avoid any new balance of payments crisis after any new spurt of economic growth," said Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.

"The IMF will make sure Pakistan fulfils its commitment and delivers to the IMF programme. It will not allow any new measures that may derail the programme. The objective of the IMF programme was to maintain economic stability with structural reforms and that is being done through various measures including additional taxes on the salaried class, taxes on utility bills, etc," said economist Shahbaz Rana.

Binici also reminded Pakistan that its focus should stay on the reform agenda instead of achieving stability without adjustment.

"The objective is to have stronger, sustainable and more inclusive growth. Sustainable growth could be achieved through reducing distortions, ending sate interventions and removing a variety of concessions, which would enable to have more resilient growth," he said.