Imran Khan Wants IMF Support Halted Over ‘Rigged’ Elections
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan will write a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), demanding it to stop their support for Pakistan due to “rigged elections” party leader Ali Zafar announced on Thursday.
“Imran Khan will issue a letter to IMF today. The charter of IMF, EU, and other organizations stipulates that they can function or provide loans to a country only if there’s good governance,” Zafar told journalists after meeting Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.
Zafar claimed that the “most important section” of their charter is that a country should be democratic. “If there’s no democracy, then neither can these institutions function in those countries, nor should they.”
“The basic pillar of a democracy is to conduct a free and fair election. However, the entire world saw how the nation’s mandate was stolen. Let’s leave pre-poll rigging aside, in post-poll rigging, victory was snatched from PTI’s winning candidates.”
This is not the PTI’s first attempt to influence the IMF deal. In 2022, former PTI leader Shaukat Tarin instructed the party’s then-finance ministers of KP and Punjab to inform the IMF that the commitments previously made could not be honored, citing recent flood devastation in the country as the rationale behind this stance.
Last year, Pakistan obtained a $3 billion short-term program from the IMF, which was crucial in preventing a sovereign debt default. However, this program is set to expire next month, and obtaining a new, significantly larger one is widely recognized as the primary goal of the new administration.
Following the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) forming a coalition government with their allies, the PTI and several other political parties have completely rejected the election results and declared nationwide protests.
The PTI insists that elections outcomes be determined solely based on Form 45, which provides the results of individual polling stations, rather than Form 47, which consolidates the results for an entire constituency. The party alleges tampering with the latter and claims its independent candidates secured a clear majority in the National Assembly.