Finance ministry dismisses fiscal numbers-only claim
A day after Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal sought a role for the Planning Commission in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) talks and described it as "fiscal numbers" focused, the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday turned down the assertion. The "IMF programme is demonstrably not confined to numbers or fiscal targets", said the ministry in a detailed response. The finance ministry also sought to make a distinction between its role "for overall programme coordination" and agreement on benchmarks that were the responsibility of other divisions and provincial governments. The ministry's reaction came the day the IMF mission landed in Karachi for the fourth review of the $7 billion loan programme, which is expected to continue till October 7.