The IMF is looking favourably at Pakistan's request for a 2.5-billion-dollar loan, as Islamabad braces for the economic fallout of possible US military strikes against Afghanistan, a UN official said Friday.
UN Development Programme (UNDP) country chief Onder Ucer said donors and financial institutions had expressed their "goodwill" toward the cash-strapped country as it prepares to be a frontline state in the US fight against terrorism.
He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was due to meet next week to discuss a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) for Pakistan, which is facing a massive influx of refugees from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
"I feel that there will be solid support (from the IMF) but it all depends on discussion of the technicalities," he told AFP.
"The goodwill is there to rally behind Pakistan and perhaps the first fruit of that will be a quick decision on the PRGF."
Pakistan has also sought economic concessions from the United States in exchange for its offer of "full cooperation" with Washington to hunt down alleged terrorists in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, who has been living under Taliban protection in Afghanistan since 1996, is wanted "dead or alive" by the United States in connection with last week's terror attacks in New York and Washington.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees are already massing near the Pakistan border, fearing a massive US onslaught against bin Laden and the Taliban.
Pakistan already hosts some two million Afghan refugees, and has complained that it cannot accept any more without international assistance.
The crisis has already put strains on the economy, which is struggling under the burden of more than 30 billion dollars of foreign debt.
The military-led government of President Pervez Musharraf last month successfully completed a 596-million-dollar IMF standby facility and is now hoping for a much larger package. |
