Pakistan rejects Intercept story alleging Pakistani weapons' sale to Ukraine

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday rejected the Intercept news story alleging sale of Pakistani weapons to Ukraine to get International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package for Pakistan, ARY News reported 

Responding to media queries on the latest Intercept story, Spokesperson Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, termed the story as baseless and fabricated.

She said: “the IMF Standby Arrangement for Pakistan was successfully negotiated between Pakistan and the IMF to implement difficult but essential economic reforms. Giving any other colour to these negotiations is disingenuous”.

“Pakistan maintains a policy of strict neutrality in the dispute between Ukraine and Russia and in that context, does not provide any arms and ammunition to them. Pakistan’s defense exports are always accompanied with strict end user requirements”, she added.

It is pertinent to mention here that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $3 billion loan for Pakistan after signing the staff-level agreement. The loan was approved by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to an official statement, the International Monetary Fund directed to immediately disburse $1.2 billion while the remaining $1.8 billion will be scheduled in November and February in two instalments after reviewing the policies.

The IMF executive board said that Pakistan has to strictly follow the policies which were finalized in the IMF deal and the target set in the budget should also be implemented.