IMF acknowledges Punjab govt’s progress: Azma Bokhari

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has rebutted the contents of a news item published under the headline “Provinces face new targets under fiscal pact”, in an English language daily on November 17, asserting that the news report falsely refers to the government of Punjab’s investment in a UAE-based fund.

Contradicting the erroneous impression created in the news, the Information Minister said that the government of Punjab has not invested in any UAE-based fund. “Since there is no such investment in a UAE-based fund, this was never discussed in the meeting of the IMF with the functionaries of the government of Punjab. Furthermore, the news item wrongly insinuates IMF’s alarm over the previously incorrectly reported 1st quarter deficit of Punjab,” she mentioned. Azma Bokhari said that the IMF agreed that the Punjab government had a surplus of approximately Rs 40 billion at the end of the 1st quarter and as such the Ministry of Finance, government of Pakistan corrected its data and uploaded revised fiscal operations reflecting the Punjab government’s surplus. “Lastly, the news item also misreports that Punjab fell short of its surplus target of Rs. 150 billion at the end of the 1st quarter. Punjab does not have quarterly targets of surplus in the National Fiscal Pact and the IMF agreed that Punjab was on track to achieve its committed surplus of Rs. 630 billion at the end of the current financial year,” she stated.