Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has been leading a Pakistani delegation to the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), being held in Washington DC from October 21-26, when he was confronted by Jalil Afridi, infamous for asking irrelevant questions from US State Department official briefing.
At the Wilson Center, Afridi questioned the finance minister: “When you come to Washington to ask for money, how do you beg with such expensive hotels and big delegations and with such a smile?”
Afridi further claimed: “Ever since Afghanistan became free [2021], its economy is performing better than Pakistan, especially the rates of dollars are better there than in Pakistan. Why is that?”
However, his question did not stop there. He also stated: “The justice system in Pakistan is also bad, and just a few days ago, it was the second death anniversary of the killed journalist. [Arshad Sharif]”
The Finance Minister did not get startled by this line of questioning. Rather, he calmly replied: “I’m not sure if I’m the right person to answer your questions because I certainly do not agree with you that Afghanistan’s economy is doing better than Pakistan’s. So we have a fundamental disagreement, but you’ll have to call the Finance Minister of Afghanistan to ask him what is happening there.”
Two days ago, Reuters reported that Pakistan is targeting around $1 billion in a formal request for funding from the IMF facility that helps low and middle-income countries mitigate climate risk.
