Pakistan expected to get debt relief from May 1: FM Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said Pakistan is expected to get debt relief from May 1.

According to Radio Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said decision of G-20 countries and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide debt relief to the developing countries and added about seventy countries including Pakistan will benefit from it. He said this relief will be for a period of one year.

FM Qureshi said Pakistan is expected to get a major relief from the International Monetary Fund.

The foreign minister recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan had appealed to the world leaders and institutions to restructure loans of the developing countries to cope with the coronavirus challenge.

He said this will enable the developing countries to divert their resources to the protection of lives of the people and make their health systems more effective to respond to the challenge.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said this appeal of the Prime Minister was endorsed by the UN Secretary General, the IMF and the G-20 countries.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has supported Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call for a Global Initiative for debt relief to developing countries, amid coronavirus outbreak.

At a regular virtual press briefing in New York, the Spokesman of the UN Secretary General, Stephane Dujarric said Imran Khan’s initiative is in the same spirit as the Secretary-General’s own position.