Foreign minister says Pakistan in `perfect storm’ of crises

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has spoken out about his country facing a “perfect storm” of economic crisis, catastrophic flooding, and terrorism following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Zardari has criticized the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for delaying a bailout to Pakistan and stretching out talks while 100,000 new refugees are in the country and extremist activity is on the rise. He supports expanding revenue collection but stated that Pakistan has been unable to achieve structural tax reform while having struggled to pay $30bn in damage to the floods. Commenting on Pakistan’s neighbor China, Zardari revealed he believes his government has a “healthy” economic relationship with China, stating that the country was “very grateful” for China’s $1.3bn loan announced in March. Zardari said Pakistan has tried to work with Moscow to meet its energy needs and insisted that Pakistan’s alleged influence over the Taliban has always been exaggerated.



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