Despite India's "Terror Sponsorship" Objection, IMF's $1-Billion Bailout For Pak

The International Monetary Fund has authorised the "immediate disbursement" of a billion-dollar bailout to Pakistan's troubled economy.

The Washington-based global lender said its decision allows for an "immediate disbursement of around $1 billion, bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to about $2.1 billion". 

A statement from the Pak PMO, cited by news agencies Reuters and PTI, said Shehbaz Sharif had "expressed satisfaction over the approval of a $1 billion... by the IMF and the failure of India's high-handed tactics..."

India registered its protest, arguing the funds could be misused, at the board of IMF which met on Friday to review the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) lending programme for Pakistan. New Delhi abstained from voting at the crucial meeting.

The IMF's decision, meanwhile, was made as the Pakistani military launched weapon-carrying drones and missiles at western Indian cities and military installations for a third consecutive night.

Swarms of Pak drones were spotted over Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Punjab, and the Indian military has begun engaging the enemy targets, the government said.

READ | Pak Drones At 26 Indian Locations, Blackouts In Several Cities

Three civilians were injured in Punjab's Ferozepur after a drone attacked a residential colony.

Pak drones and missiles attacked India Wednesday and Thursday night too, emphasising the worrying escalation of military tension between the two nuclear powers.

READ | India's 'We Control Our Skies' Message After Shooting Pak Missiles

India's air defence system - including the integrated counter-unmanned aerial system, or C-UAS, and the indigenously developed Akash missile defence system - has shot down or neutralised almost all of Pak's projectiles, the government said in a briefing earlier today.

India's Protest At IMF

Earlier today India had opposed the IMF's proposal to extend loans of up to $2.3 billion, including a fresh Reliance and Sustainability Facility lending programme worth $1.3 billion.

India argued the funds could be misused - to finance state-sponsored cross-border terrorism - and protested by abstained from voting on the disbursement.

The objections were fuelled by New Delhi's long-held position that the Pakistan government, or at least the deep state, actively funds and supports cross-border terrorism targeting India.

READ | India Opposes IMF's Fresh Loans To Pakistan, Abstains From Voting

Those charges have been raised once again after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in J&K, in which 26 people, mostly civilians, were killed. A proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, calling itself The Resistance Front, claimed responsibility for the attack.

India responded with a raft of non-military measures followed by Operation Sindoor early Wednesday, in which nine terror camps in Pak and Pak-occupied Kashmir were destroyed.

READ | Pak 'One Of World's Most Dangerous, Terror Trail In Moscow, London'

Pakistan fiercely denied any connection to the Pahalgam attack and called for an international inquiry, but India has since pointed to a pile of evidence linking Pak state and military actors to terror attacks worldwide, including the 2005 London bombings and an attack in Russia last year.

READ | 'LeT Involved?': UN Security Council Blasts Pakistan Over Pahalgam

Pakistan was also grilled by the United Nations Security Council over terror groups like Lashkar continuing to operate from within its territory.

With input from agencies

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