Pakistan Takes $5bn Imf Bail-out After Allies Refuse Funds

Pakistan has sought an emergency bail-out from the International Monetary Fund, a humiliating step forced on Islamabad after allies refused to come up with cash to prevent the country going bust.

The IMF confirmed yesterday that Pakistan had sought funds to meet balance of payments difficulties. It is expected to provide $5bn (about £3bn) or more for the coming year, with billions more for subsequent years.

Pakistan's finance minister, Shaukat Tareen, said recently that going to the IMF was his "plan C", but Islamabad has been stung by rebuffs from its closest international partners - China, the US and Saudi Arabia - leaving it with few choices. Past IMF programs, requiring Pakistan to agree to austerity measures, were deeply unpopular. The previous regime, of President Pervez Musharraf, had trumpeted its break from this source of finance.

"Musharraf, everyone, celebrated that Pakistan had graduated out of IMF programs. He said he had 'broken the begging bowl'," said Faisal Bari, a professor of economics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. "Going back to the IMF means that the country is carrying the begging bowl again, that it is not on a path of sustainable growth."

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves will run out within about seven weeks, meaning that it will not be able to meet external debt payments, making it bankrupt. The restoration of democracy, with elections in February, coincided with an economic collapse that has sent inflation soaring and the rupee plunging. Islamabad had hoped that, as a frontline state in the "war on terror", allies would come to its aid, as a bankrupt country would not be able to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said the west would suffer if Pakistan was not helped. "You have to wake up and realize that Pakistan is a victim, Pakistan has stood by you ... if you don't stand by Pakistan you will let yourselves down," Qureshi said in a BBC interview.

The US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher, visiting Pakistan this week, said the "goal was not to throw money on the table". The IMF typically lends money in return for economic reforms that require deep cuts in government expenditure and a rise in taxes. But the coalition government has already carried out some of these measures, mostly by withdrawing subsidies for fuel, electricity and food.

Mushtaq Khan, an economist at Citibank in London, described the bail-out as good news. "The IMF is like bitter medicine but, unfortunately, that's what is required."

Separately, Pakistan's parliament last night agreed on a counterterrorism policy. However, the strategy, which has the support of all parties, may prove controversial with international partners as it calls for dialogue with militants and the use of force only as a last resort.