KARACHI: Pakistan on Saturday received the first tranche of $500 million from Qatar under the $3 billion package consisting of a foreign currency deposit and direct investment.

State Bank of Pakistan’s chief spokesman Abid Qamar told Dawn that a deposit of $500m had been received from the gas-rich nation.

Qatar had announced the package a day after its ruler Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s two-day visit to Islamabad last week.

Qatar is the fourth country which offered a support package to Pakistan making the combined bilateral loans from all these friendly countries during the current fiscal year to more than $12.7bn before Pakistan formally enters an International Monetary Fund programme for $6bn financing next month.

So far, Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates have extended about $9.7bn in loans and cash deposits to Islamabad since the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf came to power in August last year.

However, it is unclear how much of the Qatari bailout would include cash deposit and how much will be in the form of investment.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2019