The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government is scrambling to revive the programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) amid a steep fall in foreign loan disbursements to just $8.4 billion this fiscal year, a private TV channel reported. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar met US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome on Wednesday and informed him about the progress on the ongoing talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF), conveying his government’s commitment to complete the programme with the lender, a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance said. Dar also informed the US ambassador about his government’s budgetary measures to reduce the fiscal gap in order to meet its national as well as international financial obligations, according to the statement. He shared the economic policies and priorities of the government to address the challenging economic environment and set the economy on the path to stability and growth, it added. “The two sides also exchanged views about areas of common interest and how the existing bilateral relations between the two countries can be enhanced further.” The statement said Ambassador Blome “expressed confidence in the policies and programmes of the government for economic sustainability and socio-economic uplift of the masses” and “extended his support to further promote bilateral economic, investment and trade relations between both the countries”. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has arrived in France, where he hopes to meet IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgiva on the sidelines of the summit for a new Global Financial Pact in Paris. The premier is slated to be in Paris on June 22 and 23. Shehbaz has also written three letters to Georgiva in this regard besides speaking to her on the phone but to no apparent avail thus far. Earlier this month, a cabinet member revealed that the IMF has rejected Pakistan’s request to lower the requirement of arranging $6 billion in new loans, leaving the government with no alternative but to try and revive the deal. In a policy statement during the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Minister of State for Finance Dr Aisha Pasha emphasized that returning to the IMF was Pakistan’s only option. According to Dr Pasha, Pakistan requested the IMF to consider reducing the $6 billion external financing requirement based on new current account deficit data, but the Fund did not agree. She explained that there was an understanding to arrange $3 billion before the staff-level agreement and the remaining $3 billion after the agreement, but the IMF was insisting on “demonstrating the $6 billion”. When asked about a Plan B in case talks with the IMF fail to yield positive results, Dr Pasha said that, “There is no option other than going back to the IMF, and I categorically say there is no Plan B”. She reiterated that the government’s aim was to pursue the IMF program. Dr Pasha’s statement stood in contradiction to Dar’s previous position that Pakistan should try to manage with or without the IMF.