Pakistan has rejected a report claiming that it offered arms and ammunition to Ukraine so as to safe an important bailout package deal from the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF).
Overseas Workplace Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch on Monday rejected as baseless and fabricated the Intercept report saying that cash-strapped Pakistan offered arms to the US to get its help to clinch a $3 billion take care of the IMF in the direction of the tip of June to keep away from default.
The Intercept, an investigative web site, on Sunday reported that secret Pakistani arms gross sales to the US helped to facilitate a controversial bailout from the IMF earlier this yr.
The report mentioned that the arms gross sales had been made for the aim of supplying the Ukrainian army marking Pakistani involvement in a battle it had confronted US stress to take sides on.
Pakistan has struggled to keep up a steadiness in ties with the Kremlin and Washington because the Russia-Ukraine disaster started earlier final yr.
The IMF Standby Association for Pakistan was efficiently negotiated between Pakistan and the IMF to implement troublesome however important financial reforms. Giving another color to those negotiations is disingenuous, Daybreak Information quoted Baloch as saying.
Baloch mentioned Pakistan maintained a coverage of strict neutrality within the dispute between the 2 nations and didn’t present them any arms or ammunition in that context.
Pakistan’s defence exports are at all times accompanied by strict end-user necessities, she mentioned.
Throughout a go to to Pakistan in July, Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba had rejected comparable experiences that the cash-strapped nation was supplying arms to Ukraine to help its army in the course of the ongoing battle with Russia, in keeping with Daybreak.
He had clarified that the 2 nations had no deal for the availability of arms and ammunition.
Former overseas minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had additionally expressed comparable views, sustaining that Pakistan had not signed any settlement with Ukraine for army provides because the conflict started.
In July, the IMF transferred $1.2 billion to cash-strapped Pakistan, a part of the $3 billion bailout programme for 9 months to help the federal government’s efforts to stabilise the nation’s ailing economic system.
