A Historic Blunder

A ceasefire has been announced post-Operation Sindoor that destroyed nine terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), its air defence infrastructure and other military bases.

- ASHWANI MAHAJAN

But even under these circumstances, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a loan of $1.4bn to Pakistan from its Climate Resilience Fund, as well as an additional $1bn under the existing economic stabilisation programme of $7bn. This is an extremely worrying situation.

This action of the IMF is being condemned by one and all in India. Though we cannot say that the IMF has provided financial aid to Pakistan to wage war, there is an apprehension that this money may be misused to nurture war and terrorism. It is unfortunate that before this, the IMF has given loans to Pakistan 25 times to overcome its financial crisis.

But it seems that the audit process of the IMF, regarding utilisation of loans, either does not exist or is very weak. Whether the loan that Pakistan has received this time will be used for its intended purpose remains to be seen.

At a recent IMF meeting, India had raised concerns over bailout packages and potential misuse of the loan. Although the IMF claims its monitoring system oversees the use of loans, documents show that this depends solely on economic data provided by Pakistan, such as figures on its budget deficit. In reality, the IMF's monitoring system may not be fully equipped to ensure that funds are not used to service loans of other countries or unrelated purposes.

Fears of Misuse