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Earlier this week, reports claim that Gen Bajwa spoke on the phone with Wendy Sherman, the US Deputy Secretary of State.

In an effort to stabilise Pakistan"s faltering economy, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has requested assistance from the US administration in securing an early distribution of a tranche of bailout funds from the International Monetary Fund.

Security sources claim that earlier this week, the army chief spoke over the phone with Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state for the United States.

According to them, Gen. Bajwa appealed to the White House and the Treasury Department to pressure the IMF to send Pakistan the almost $1.2 billion it is owed as part of a renewed loan programme right now.

Pakistan has already received "staff-level approval" from the IMF for the aforementioned loan as of July 13. But the deal, which is a component of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility for Pakistan, won"t go through until the executive board of the multilateral lender gives its final approval.

The IMF will be out of commission for the next three weeks, and its board won"t meet again until the end of August. According to an IMF official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, no specific time has been scheduled for announcing the loan approval for Pakistan.
Islamabad needs to act quickly because its foreign reserves, which only cover around two months" worth of import costs and are less than $9 billion due to the rupee"s sharp decline versus the dollar.

The IMF representative believes that there is a significant distinction between approval at the staff level and board approval.

The official stated that "our stakeholders, the nations that take the vote as to whether they are endorsing this or not, make the final choice." This is a distinction. Therefore, rather than the staff level agreement, the legally enforceable action is a board approval.

The fund was established in 1945, and the US is its main shareholder.

The army chief"s appeal follows a series of separate meetings between high-ranking Pakistani and American civilian officials in July that failed to reach an agreement on an early release of funding.

An official familiar with the situation reported that "several senior Pakistani officials have met with the US and other key stakeholder countries in the IMF and World Bank in the previous week to register concern regarding about the timing of IMF Executive Board decisions and to press for expedited review of Pakistan"s progress on prior actions."

Sources claim that the army leader decided to contact Washington after those talks resulted in no progress because previous emissaries were unable to do so.

Pakistan has started 22 different IMF programmes since 1958, but just one has been completed.

Officials acquainted with the exchange acknowledged that the situation with the currency and foreign reserves was concerning, but they also reported progress on the IMF finance facility.

August won"t be simple, but if the administration can get through this challenging month, there are good chances to stabilise the economy, according to the sources.

In the meantime, the acting governor of the State Bank, Murtaza Syes, told the media that the worry about Pakistan defaulting is exaggerated. He claimed that the funding requirements for the upcoming year will be covered.

He acknowledged that Pakistan would prefer to receive the IMF funding as soon as possible, but he also stated that Islamabad is in talks with Saudi Arabia and China, two nations the army commander just visited, to secure additional funding.