The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has welcomed the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program for Pakistan and termed it a positive development for the economy as it would pave the way for the opening of other international financing channels to Pakistan and help revive our struggling economy.
President, ICCI Muhammad Shakeel Munir said that the Finance Minister Miftah Ismail had made great efforts to get the IMF program back on track and he congratulated the minister for achieving this success for Pakistan, said a press release issued here. He further said that Miftah Ismail had to take some very tough decisions for the revival of the IMF bailout program and hoped that with the improvement of our economy, the government would miss no opportunity to provide all possible relief to the inflation-stricken people. He said that the approval of the IMF Board to the seventh and eighth reviews of Pakistan’s bailout program had allowed the release of over USD 1.1 billion to Pakistan, which would help in improving foreign reserves and bringing some sort of stability to our fragile economy.
ICCI President lauded the pledge of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to finish the IMF program successfully and enable the country to exit from such programs by making it self-sustainable. He said that Pakistan’s economy was already facing great challenges while the recent flash floods in all provinces of the country had created new difficulties due to heavy loss of human lives, livestock, crops and infrastructure. Senior Vice President Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh and Vice President ICCI Muhammad Faheem Khan said that Pakistan comes first for every citizen of the country, therefore ICCI would always support the moves which were made in favour of Pakistan and strongly condemned the elements working against the interest of the economy and people of Pakistan.