Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The International Monitoring Fund (IMF) will not ink any agreement with the provincial government unless the federal government announced the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. However it has lauded the significant progress in implementing the development projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

According to an official handout the Finance Minister Muzafar Said, met with the representative of the IMF Tuqar Mir Zop, here on Sunday and discussed the financial situation of the province.

It said that as the IMF and other financial bodies of the world agreed to provide loans to the province on lenient conditions but these were linked to the release of the NFC award.

Muzafar Said claimed that not only the IMF but the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the German Bank and other financial organisations had praised the provincial government’s performance in the past four years.

However, since the NFC award was pending the clear picture of the provincial financial condition could not be taken for negotiation with international financial organisations, providing loans to the government for development schemes.

The international organisations were content with the provincial government for undertaking and completing the reforms in the government and semi government departments to facilitate their citizens for gaining their rights he added.

The federal government was using delaying tactics to announce the 9th NFC award in the country and was wasting precious time of the province to complete its development projects and ongoing schemes Muzafar Said added.