Zardari leaves for Saudi Arabia tomorrow: IMF loan is a cure: Zardari

[Naveed Yaseen]

* President to solicit Saudi support for Friends of Pakistan initiative * Says war on terror is ‘a long struggle with complex challenges’
* Foreign incursions ‘unacceptable’, undermine war on terror

JEDDAH: While a cash-strapped Pakistan is still averse to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, the country must consider the option ‘as a cure for its ailing economy’, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday.

Zardari is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks with King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to solicit support for the Friends of Pakistan initiative and for an oil facility on deferred payment requested by Pakistam.

“Saudi Arabia has always helped Pakistan in difficult times,” Zardari told the Saudi Gazette in an interview ahead of the visit. “I will solicit Saudi support for the Friends of Pakistan initiative.”

Besides the forum, “Pakistan is supported through a series of negotiations by various world economic bodies – World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UK’s Department for International Development,” Zardari said, suggesting that options remain open for Pakistan.

“Getting aid from the IMF is our last option,” he said, but added after a pause: “Actually, we must consider the IMF option as a medicine that will ultimately cure our ailing economy.” An IMF loan is often tied to stringent conditions, chief of which is elimination of subsidies.

“In just five years, our oil bill has increased from $3 billion to over $12 billion,” he said. “Such an increase is also creating difficulties for our budget as we have tried to protect our people from the rising cost of energy by subsidising fuel and electricity.”

“Global food inflation is hovering between 35 and 40 percent,” Zardari said while explaining his government’s struggle to control food prices in the midst of various initiatives to return Pakistan on a high growth trajectory.

“Unfortunately, for decades Pakistan was being managed by people who had no perspective or imagination,” Zardari said. “Otherwise, Pakistan is rich in all sorts of resources.”

War on terror: Zardari said the war on terror “is a long struggle with complex challenges requiring a multi-pronged approach combining political, military and development tracks”.

Incursions: But “incursions inside Pakistani territory by foreign forces is not acceptable”, he said, adding that they “undermine the fight against militancy”.

He said the US-India civil nuclear deal was ‘discriminatory’ and Pakistan wanted a ‘level playing field’, but the government was committed to the peace process with India.

The president said the parliament would decide the future of former president Pervez Musharraf. “However, let me also add that we do not believe in taking revenge. Democracy is the best revenge.” agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg1_1