Pakistan minister cancels trip to IMF, World Bank meetings in US – sources

Pakistan’s finance minister has cancelled a visit to Washington for spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, government officials said on Friday, citing domestic political turmoil as the reason.
Minister Ishaq Dar was scheduled to attend the meetings from April 10 and see top IMF officials and multilateral creditors in a bid to secure stalled funding that the South Asian country desperately needs to avert a balance-of-payments crisis.
Islamabad has been negotiating with the IMF since early February to secure $1.1 billion funding as part of a $6.5 billion rescue programme agreed in 2019.
Two government officials cited political turmoil as the reason for the cancellation. The English-language Express Tribune newspaper quoted Dar as saying he was not going because of the political crisis.