Pakistan’s talks with the International Monetary Fund over the release of a tranche in an $11 billion loan are going smoothly and have been unaffected by the arrest of the head of the global lender, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Monday. Pakistan and an IMF team are holding talks in Dubai until Wednesday. When asked if the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn for attempted rape in a New York hotel would have any impact on IMF operations in Pakistan or the loan talks, the official said it had nothing “to do with our work, which is going smoothly”. The official declined to be identified owing to the sensitivity of the issue. The IMF agreed to an emergency loan for Pakistan in 2008 and has $3 billion left to disburse.
