Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin on Thursday expressed hope for the successful outcome of top-level negotiations between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for putting the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) back on track. “I believe that the progress we have made to date is really encouraging and as we say Inshallah I see this happening now in this visit,” the federal minister said in an interview at the United States Institute of Peace on ‘Pakistan’s Economic Future. The minister said that the concluding sixth round of talks with IMF was the most important part of his visit to the United States (US), adding that many virtual meetings already took place while the technical level discussions had also been concluded. He said, in the end, meetings would be held with seniors at the IMF, including the managing director of the fund. The minister said his government thought that IMF’s demand to increase power tariffs would trigger inflation, adding that this point was made in technical discussion with the fund, which was also informed that the increase in tariff would be made gradually to avert any abrupt impact on inflation. He said that there were some problems on the power side, including excess capacity, for which the government had to pay, adding, the performance of distribution and generation companies was also being improved. He said all this was being successfully negotiated with the IMF. The minister said there was no stagnation in growth, the Pakistan economy would grow by over five percent during the fiscal year 2021-22. He said that back in the 1960s Pakistan’s economy was the fourth largest in Asia, however, the nationalization policy of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the Afghani War in 1979 disrupted the economic growth. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan took over an economy that was struggling in 2018 with a $20 billion current account deficit, unsustainable fiscal deficit, adding that he had to go for tough IMF programme besides taking some politically unpopular decisions including currency devaluation, increasing discount rate and increasing utility prices. The minister said that as the country’s economy had started consolidating and growing, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. However, it was skillfully dealt with by the government as was indicated by far lesser human and property losses caused by the pandemic in Pakistan compared to the rest of the world. He said the government during Covid-19 kept investing in two productive sectors, agriculture and industry as well as housing. The minister said that the prime minister had changed the focus of the country from geo-security to geo-politics to ensure the economic welfare of people. This kind of change in focus meant everything changes in terms of foreign policy, economic policy, internal security, and whatever else and relationship with neighbours. He said that Pakistan was having good relations with all neighbouring countries, but there were issues with India, which needed to be resolved. The minister said there was a fundamental issue between Pakistan and India and that was Kashmir, which he said, was a disputed territory as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions. However, he said the current Indian government was not accepting its disputed nature and had taken few unilateral decisions, depriving Kashmiris of various privileges given to them. He said that trade and economic operations between India and Pakistan were suffering, adding that Imran Khan had offered so many times to India that if they took one step Pakistan would take two steps, urging the Indian government to respond positively. He said at the political level, there was a need to provide some space for economics and the welfare of the people of both countries. The minister said like other counties of the globe, Pakistan also wanted an inclusive government in Afghanistan and was also striving for that. However, he cautioned that the Taliban government was running out of cash and if the world did not come to support them on humanitarian grounds, there would be complete chaos, which would spill over to Pakistan and other countries. He said that since the Taliban were saying that they would cooperate with the world, become a responsible country, take care of human rights, protect women rights and pledge not to promote terrorism, they should help them step by step and encourage them to demonstrate improvements in their behaviour. He said that if the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated it would affect Pakistan the most. “Pakistan believes if the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates we will directly get affected, ” the minister remarked. Talking about the security situation in Pakistan the minister said that Pakistan had fenced border with Afghanistan, except a small strip near Chaman while traffic flow to and from Afghanistan had been controlled and security forces were also taking necessary action to maintain security. The minister said that the government was working to reform the entire human resource; brought in the private sector in a key position in ministries and had a combination of bureaucrats who understood both government and private sector. He said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had constituted, a committee on these lines having half-half representation from public and private sectors to move forward efficiently. The minister said that owing to the comprehensive policy decisions, Pakistan jumped 28 places in ease of doing business. He said that the prime minister was taking charge himself and the Board of Investment was reporting directly to him while the PM was holding two meetings every month. He said that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) would be made autonomous to provide a conducive environment to the foreign investors, adding that autonomous status would initially be introduced in around six zones within the next 12 months and would be replicated in other zones later. The minister said that Pakistan wanted to befriend with everybody including the United States and China. He said that Pakistan had a major strategic partnership with the US and its friendship with China would not affect its relations with the US. “We believe we can work with both powers equally.” He said, China had helped us to build infrastructure and that did not mean Pakistan had become China-Centric. “We are open and want to do business with China, the US, Europe, Japan, Korea. We are an open country. There should be no misconception,” he cleared. On China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the minister said Pakistan needed to build infrastructure to attract foreign investments. Since Pakistan was not in a position to build such a huge infrastructure, so China provided funds and helped us in building roads, railways, power generation and other infrastructure which generated economic activity. To a question, the minister said there were few projects where companies from China, United States and Pakistan were engaged in joint ventures and collaborating with each other. This cooperation could be enhanced he added.