Pakistan prime minister in his address to the nation on Wednesday announced that Saudi Arabia will extend its financial help, FT reported. Cash-strapped Pakistan urgently needs those $6bn from Saudis.
Imran Khan has congratulated the Pakistan nation, which was “at the brink of becoming defaulters” due to limited resources, In his Wednesday address, the new PM announced that they secured loans to the tune of $6 billion in talks held with Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh.
“My Pakistanis, today I am here with a good news for all of you. We were facing really hard times. We were highly pressurised into paying heavy debts. But thanks to Saudi Arab’s extension of assistance, we are out of the pressure,” he said during a public address on Wednesday.
Imran Khan said that Pakistanis had two options; either go to International Monetary Fund or seek financial support from friendly countries. A delegation from IMF is scheduled to visit the nation on November 7 to discuss the loan amount that is required by Pakistan. Of course, the IMF option is very tough because Pakistan’s have had to borrow more money and that would have meant stricter conditions which would crush the poor strata of society. “But now we are in a better position,” said the prime minister, mentioning the financial help from Saudi Arabia.
Launching a scathing attack at the preceding Pakistan Cabinet, PM Khan claimed that the governments had “accumulated Pakistan’s debts from Rs. 6,000 billion to Rs. 30,000 billion” in addition to the circular debt of Rs. 1,200 billion left behind by the previous government. In his public address, the new PM has touched the corruption issue as well.
Thanks to the “friendly nations”, Pakistan will get $6bn, this money will be a relief for cash-strapped Pakistan. Promising “good times ahead”, the Prime Minister further said,
“Nations do face hard times but these adversities are not there to be intimidated of. I have said this before and I will say this today again; do not worry, have confidence, good times are about to come.”
Saudi’s financial bailout to Pakistan comes in the midst of the Islamic nation’s current account deficit of $18 billion, which had triggered Pakistan to seek assistance from the IMF earlier this month.
