Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) requesting the lender of the last resort to send its review mission to the federal capital next week, media reports said.

“The government has concluded that there is no other choice but to revive the IMF programme on an immediate basis, so we have decided to invite the IMF.

The decision was taken during a high-powered meeting of the economic team chaired virtually by PM Shehbaz for the second consecutive day, according to Geo news.

A day earlier, PM Shehbaz gave a nod to implement tough prescriptions of the IMF in order to break the deadlock and accomplish the pending ninth review necessary to release of $1 billion tranche under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

The sources confirmed that the secretary of finance has sent a written request to the Fund for sending its review mission and "hopefully, the lender will respond positively."

It was also learnt that the economic team under the PM had finalised a macroeconomic and fiscal framework and attached conditions of the IMF. It would be implemented once agreed with the Fund mission on the negotiating table.

Therefore, the authorities decided to first evolve a consensus with the IMF on all the attached conditions and then implement them.

(With UNI inputs)