The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to approve a $ 7.6 billion loan for Pakistan under the stand-by arrangement by November 19 and Islamabad will get the first tranche, $4 billion, by the next week to improve its dwindling foreign currency reserves, said a news report. The board is also scheduled to meet on November 17 but it is unlikely to consider Pakistan's bailout package in this meeting. The formal approval from the board is expected on November 19 or November 23 which will pave the way for getting the first tranche within 72 hours after this approval, the report published in the English language The News said. However, experts say that the IMF deal will bring the consumers, subscribers and provincial governments on a collision course after its hidden conditions will be revealed. Opposition lawmakers fear the IMF will impose austerity measures that will hurt ordinary Pakistanis. But the IMF said the package included steps to protect the poor from cutbacks. Ahsan Iqbal of the PML-N said the government should admit its economic plans had failed, Dawn, an English-language daily, reported on Sunday. The major contoversy is about the interest rate to be paid by Pakistan. The stand-by facility being offered is said to be the highest-ever on a soft-loan mark-up of 3.51 percent to 4.51 percent agreed to by any counry for foreign currency bailout. Dr Salman Shah, former adviser on finance to the federal government, said that mark-up should not be a big problem, but the conditions attached to this loan were worrisome. The new loan to Pakistan is stringed to conditions for increasing tolls, energy price and taxes by fiscal and administrative measures in 2009, reported an English-language daily, The News. The transport tolls might be increased four times, while the energy rates would be increased by more than 30 per cent. In such a situation, it is feared that the government's decision to borrow money from the IMF could lead to a public backlash. Murtaza Mughal of Pakistan Economy Watch suggested that Zardari and other Pakistani leaders set an example by bringing into Pakistan bank money they held in banks elsewhere. – With Input from Agencies __
