Pakistan using IMF loans to bankroll terror networks: Top UN ex-official

New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) In scathing criticism of the IMF loan to Pakistan, former Assistant General Secretary of the United Nations Laxmi M. Puri said, “The world needs to understand- funding Pakistan is not supporting peace. It’s subsidising terrorism.”

“From 1958 to yesterday — Pakistan has turned the IMF into a revolving credit line for chaos. Not for reforms, not for development — but to bankroll terror networks, shield global fugitives and prop up a military that thrives on instability,” Laxmi Puri lamented in a note on X.

“Pakistan has defaulted on democracy, violated every IMF programme condition, and used bailouts to underwrite bloodshed. Yet the world keeps writing cheques. Why? Fear? Fragility? Or just failure to learn?” she questioned.

Pointing out that Pakistan has borrowed from the IMF 28 times since joining in 1950. “That’s not financial aid — it’s geopolitical charity. This isn’t economic distress. It’s strategic abuse of international goodwill,” Laxmi Puri added.

India on Friday abstained from voting on extending a fresh $1.3 billion IMF loan to Pakistan under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) lending programme at the meeting at which the loan was approved.

India’s representative on the IMF executive board had strongly opposed further financial assistance from the IMF to Pakistan, expressing serious concerns over Islamabad’s track record and the fact that the bailouts were enabling the cash-strapped country to sponsor cross-border terrorism.

“While the concern that fungible inflows from international financial institutions, like the IMF, could be misused for military and state-sponsored cross-border terrorist purposes resonated with several member countries, the IMF response is circumscribed by procedural and technical formalities. This is a serious gap highlighting the urgent need to ensure that moral values are given appropriate consideration in the procedures followed by global financial institutions,” India’s representative Parameswaran Iyer said at the meeting.

He highlighted that Pakistan has been a prolonged borrower from the IMF, with a very poor track record of implementation and adherence to the IMF’s programme conditions.

Last September, the Executive Board of the IMF approved a 37-month Extended Arrangement under the EFF for Pakistan in the amount of SDR 5,320 million (or around $7 billion). While there was an immediate disbursement of $1 billion, the meeting on Friday was called to review the funding programme for Pakistan

“Pakistan military’s deeply entrenched interference in economic affairs poses significant risks of policy slippages and reversal of reforms. Even when a civilian government is in power now, the army continues to play an outsized role in domestic politics and extends its tentacles deep into the economy. In fact, a 2021 UN report described military-linked businesses as the “largest conglomerate in Pakistan”. The situation has not changed for the better; rather, the Pakistan Army now plays a leading role in the Special Investment Facilitation Council of Pakistan,” India’s representative pointed out.

--IANS

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