ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has expressed the hope that Pakistan will sign staff level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in next few days. He was addressing a seminar on “Reviving economic stability through strengthening of Public Financial Management” here in Islamabad on Thursday.

The Finance Minister said in past only PML-N government completed IMF program successfully. He said process of preparing economic and fiscal frameworks for fiscal year 2023-24 will start very soon. Ishaq Dar said given the challenges presented by the current economic situation the upcoming budget will be a step in taking the country out of the economic quagmire.

He urged the participants to actively deliberate on major economic challenges and come up with policy recommendations and solutions for reviving economy. The Finance Minister said Pakistan faced similar economic challenges in the past but we took the country out of the crisis. He said economic mismanagement in last few years has completely reversed the progress which country made in 2013-18.

He said during 2016-17 Pakistan’s economy was ranked 24th in the world. He said imprudent policies of the last government pushed Pakistan into political crisis adding due to PTI’s policies foreign direct investment was reduced. The Finance Minister said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has recently announced austerity measures which will be adopted to control country expenditures. He said the government will welcome any suggestions from all political parties for a charter of economy. He appreciated Pakistan’s developing partners including World Bank and Asian Development Bank.