Today, two government officials revealed that Pakistan's Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, has canceled his visit to Washington to attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, citing political turmoil in the country. Dar stated that he would not be going due to the political crisis, as reported by the English-language newspaper "Express Tribune."
The finance minister was scheduled to attend the meetings on April 10 and meet with senior officials from the IMF and multilateral creditors in an effort to secure much-needed funding to avoid a balance of payments crisis in the South Asian nation. Islamabad has been negotiating with the IMF since early February for a $1.1 billion bailout as part of a $6.5 billion program agreed upon in 2019.
The political unrest has been fueled by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been causing disruption since his ouster from office after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament a year ago. In a recent development, the Supreme Court ordered the advance of voting in early elections for two provincial assemblies, but the government is rejecting the court's order, which indicated that postponing the elections would be illegal.
