The federal government has provided further assurances to the International Monetary Fund about external funding worth $3 billion, most of which will come as commercial loans.

The latest plan iven by Pakistani authorities to the IMF includes $1 billion from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as well as $450 million from the World bank’s Rise-II program.

As talks on a Staff-Level Agreement for the bailout tranche continue, Pakistani authorities have urged the IMF to get the deal done as it will help secure funding from external partners more easily.

Still, the funding plan worth $3 billion is only a part of the plan that the IMF has asked for and a response from the Fund is still awaited on whether this will be enough to convince them.

While Pakistan has regularly sought financial aid from the IMF over the last few decades, the recent negotiations are being labelled as ‘excessively harsh’ by the government.

The bailout has not been finalised despite the months having passed since the IMF sent a delegation to Pakistan at the beginning of the year. The bailout has not materialised despite the fact that the government has imposed Rs170 billion in new taxes.

A key demand of the Fund that has held up things has been asking for guarantees that Pakistan’s claims of help from ‘friendly’ countries will indeed materialise. Pakistan has already communicated guarantess to the effect from Saudi Arabia, China and UAE to the IMF.