NEW DELHI: Did he? Pakistan secretly sell weapons to the United States to secure a desperately needed bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the beginning of this year?
A recent report by US-based non-profit organization The Intercept claims that Pakistan had secretly supplied weapons that were eventually used to help Ukrainian forces fight Russia amid the ongoing war.
This indicates Islamabad’s indirect involvement in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
According to Intercept, Pakistan is known as a production hub for the basic types of munitions needed for intense warfare.
In particular, some open source reports on the conflict suggested the use of Pakistani-made shells and other weapons by Ukraine, which had been struggling with a crippling arms shortage.
A source within the Pakistani military leaked records to The Intercept detailing weapons transactions earlier this year.
According to the documents, the United States and Pakistan agreed to sell ammunition from summer 2022 to spring 2023. The Russian invasion took place in February 2022.
Additionally, the authentication process was performed by matching the signature of an American brigadier general with his signature on publicly available mortgage records in the US; matching Pakistani documents with corresponding US documents; and reviewing publicly available but previously unreported Pakistani revelations about arms sales to the United States published by the State Bank of Pakistan.
Citing documents, The Intercept reported that the arms deals were brokered by Global Military Products, a subsidiary of Global Ordnance, a controversial arms dealer whose entanglements with less-than-respectable figures in Ukraine were the subject of a recent New York Times article.
The agreement helped Pakistan achieve the bailout
The report claimed that Pakistan gained political goodwill with arms sales, which in turn played a key role in helping the cash-strapped country secure an IMF bailout.
He further said that the US State Department had confided in the IMF about the undisclosed arms deal.
“To obtain the loan, the IMF had told Pakistan that it had to meet certain financing and refinancing targets related to its debt and foreign investment, targets that the country was struggling to meet. Arms sales came to the rescue, with funds raised from ammunition sales to Ukraine will go a long way toward covering the shortfall,” The Intercept reported.
In particular, Pakistan faced significant protests because it had to impose harsh structural policy reforms to meet the terms set by the IMF for its recent bailout.
The country witnessed several strikes in response to the austere measures.
“Pakistani democracy may ultimately be a victim of Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” Arif Rafiq, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and a Pakistan specialist, told The Intercept.
(With contributions from agencies)
A recent report by US-based non-profit organization The Intercept claims that Pakistan had secretly supplied weapons that were eventually used to help Ukrainian forces fight Russia amid the ongoing war.
This indicates Islamabad’s indirect involvement in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
According to Intercept, Pakistan is known as a production hub for the basic types of munitions needed for intense warfare.
In particular, some open source reports on the conflict suggested the use of Pakistani-made shells and other weapons by Ukraine, which had been struggling with a crippling arms shortage.
A source within the Pakistani military leaked records to The Intercept detailing weapons transactions earlier this year.
According to the documents, the United States and Pakistan agreed to sell ammunition from summer 2022 to spring 2023. The Russian invasion took place in February 2022.
Additionally, the authentication process was performed by matching the signature of an American brigadier general with his signature on publicly available mortgage records in the US; matching Pakistani documents with corresponding US documents; and reviewing publicly available but previously unreported Pakistani revelations about arms sales to the United States published by the State Bank of Pakistan.
Citing documents, The Intercept reported that the arms deals were brokered by Global Military Products, a subsidiary of Global Ordnance, a controversial arms dealer whose entanglements with less-than-respectable figures in Ukraine were the subject of a recent New York Times article.
The agreement helped Pakistan achieve the bailout
The report claimed that Pakistan gained political goodwill with arms sales, which in turn played a key role in helping the cash-strapped country secure an IMF bailout.
He further said that the US State Department had confided in the IMF about the undisclosed arms deal.
“To obtain the loan, the IMF had told Pakistan that it had to meet certain financing and refinancing targets related to its debt and foreign investment, targets that the country was struggling to meet. Arms sales came to the rescue, with funds raised from ammunition sales to Ukraine will go a long way toward covering the shortfall,” The Intercept reported.
In particular, Pakistan faced significant protests because it had to impose harsh structural policy reforms to meet the terms set by the IMF for its recent bailout.
The country witnessed several strikes in response to the austere measures.
“Pakistani democracy may ultimately be a victim of Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” Arif Rafiq, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and a Pakistan specialist, told The Intercept.
(With contributions from agencies)