Caretaker Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage Minister Syed Ali Zafar on Saturday said that the interim government was working as per its constitutional mandate and taking decisions of urgent nature only for the sake of the country.

He was addressing the ‘Media Conference On Election-2018 and Freedom of Expression’, organised by the Unified Media Club of Pakistan (UMCP) at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Responding to reporters’ queries, the minister said that the caretaker government was not going to make any long-term policy or agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), binding the upcoming elected government to adhere to it.

“Any discussion with the IMF would be non-binding as the interim government did not have the mandate to make long-term agreements with international donors,” he added.

He further said that the federal government, however, could take urgent decisions, which were indispensable to protect the country from any sort of crisis, adding that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had included Pakistan in the gray list in February 2018 year, with a warning to black list it if the FATF’s objections were not removed till June.

The minister also said, “Pakistan had removed most of the objections till June and the caretaker government took an urgent decision to give only a political commitment to the FATF regarding removal of the remaining ones, including legislation to curb terror financing, control money laundering and corruption.” The government made that commitment just to save the country from being blacklisted, he maintained.