‘IMF considers Pakistan economic managers deceitful’

[kpete]

Source: International Herald Tribune

‘IMF considers Pakistan economic managers deceitful’
By Shahbaz Rana
Published: April 26, 2011

Pakistan’s request for a multi-billion-dollar bailout had initially been denied by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in late 2008, and the loan was only secured after a last-minute intervention by the White House.

These revelations, along with the more damning allegation that the IMF considered Pakistan’s commitments on tax reforms to be unreliable, were made on Monday by Dr Ehtisham Ahmad, Pakistan’s former representative to the IMF at a seminar on “The urgency of tax reforms,” organised by the Institute of Development Economics and Alternatives (IDEAs), funded by the New York-based Open Society Foundation.

Ahmad, who worked at the IMF for over two decades, said that the international lender had a very low opinion of Pakistan’s ability to deliver promised reforms, which was the primary reason for the initial refusal of the bailout.

“The White House had to intervene (to secure a programme for Pakistan) as even the Friends on the IMF Board said Pakistan was lying on the promise of levying (the Value Added Tax),” said Ahmad. Even the then-Dean of the IMF Board noted that Pakistan was not sincere about what it had been promising, he added.

Read more: http://tribune.com.pk/story/156871/imf-considers-pakistan-economic-managers-deceitful/

[groundloop]

1. 2008 - that would have been the Bush White House

The story didn't specifically spell it out, but I understand it to mean that White House intervention happened in 2008, which was still Bush.

[bongbong]

2. Maybe Rush ...

I'm sure Rush will tell his dittoheads that the repig cheney & his errand boy shrub love the Muslims in Pakistan.

Then again, I believe in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny.

[DJ13]

3. Funny

A growing number of countries throughout the world considers the IMF deceitful.

[closeupready]

5. Some have argued that the IMF is an instrument of post-colonial control

of developing countries. It certainly does seem like it, at times.

[cosmicone]

4. Pakistan has not been sincere about anything throughout

its history. It is a pseudo-state created nefariously by the Brits and which survives only on one principle -- hatred of India.