Pakistan seeks philanthropists' help to raise dollars

KARACHI, Pakistan

A cash-strapped Pakistan has sought philanthropists' help to raise the country's depleting foreign reserves through overseas Pakistanis.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that he would ask the central bank governor to coordinate with philanthropists in an attempt to raise dollars from overseas Pakistanis to prop up the country's fast-decreasing foreign exchange reserves.

Speaking at a conference on Islamic finance in the port city of Karachi via video link, Dar praised an ambitious initiative floated by one of the organizers, under which leading philanthropists expect to raise $2 billion for five years.

The funds will not generate any profit for the overseas Pakistanis, said Maulana Bashir Farooqi, head of Sailani Welfare Trust, one of the leading Islamic charities in Pakistan.

With Pakistan's national reserves falling to $3.7 billion, the country's talks with the International Monetary Fund resumed on Thursday in the capital Islamabad, with the former pressing the international lender for an urgent release of $1.2 billion and the latter adding strings to the disbursement.

In 2019, the IMF and Pakistan agreed to a $6 billion bailout, which was later topped up by an additional $1 billion. Pakistan has received $4 billion so far, with the remaining sum not yet paid due to Islamabad's apparent failure to meet the IMF's terms and conditions.