The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently approved the disbursement of $1 billion to Pakistan. The approval came following IMF’s review of Pakistan’s economic reform program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The IMF also considered a fresh Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) lending program ($1.4 billion) for Pakistan.
India abstained from the vote on Pakistan’s loan programs, citing terrorism concerns. Several media reports said citing government sources that India abstained from the IMF vote as the system does not allow a formal “no” vote. However, now an IMF spokesperson clarified, “We at the IMF Executive Board, Executive Directors can vote yes, no or abstain.” However, she said, “In decisions that require a simple majority of votes cast, whether an Executive Director votes no or abstains doesn’t impact the final decision as long as there is a broad consensus on the decision.”
The spokesperson said, “We do not comment on leaks or specific vote by any Executive Director.” She said, “Under the Articles of Agreement of The International Monetary Fund (IMF), most decisions of the IMF Executive Board require a majority of votes cast, while only some decisions which are not considered the ordinary operation of the IMF and typically have far-reaching importance would require special majorities of 85% or 70% of the total voting power.”
The spokesperson said, “the IMF primarily employs a consensus-based approach for decision-making within its Executive Board and rarely needs to resort to formal voting. This approach emphasizes collective agreement, aiming to reflect the collective will of the Board.”
IMF Procedure
Earlier, Subhash Chandra Garg, ex-Finance Secretary of India and former Executive Director at the World Bank, told News24, “Countries can vote against, countries can abstain, or countries can vote in favour. There is absolutely no such provision that no one can vote against.”
He said, “This one did surprise me also – why did India not vote against and only abstained? So, that is the reason we don’t know, that will be for the government to explain. But this cannot be a reason that you were not allowed to vote against.”
