Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday emphasised that the country has met all “tough” conditions laid forth by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and now the lender has “no excuse” to delay the staff-level agreement.

Sharif lamented that the coalition government was making all-out efforts to convince the IMF officials to release a tranche of $1.1 billion. Acknowledging the woes of the people because of historic high inflation, the premier accepted that Pakistan had “no choice” but to accept all strict conditions. Pakistan signed a $6.5 billion bailout package with the IMF in 2019, but has reneged on conditions and so far just $3 billion has been released.